The last decade or so has seen an accelerating decay in the popular notion of our national media as principled and dispassionate reporters of fact. That hasn’t happened because of any significant change within the news outlets themselves. Rather, it’s been the result of the Internet-fueled rise of media watchdogs and alternative news sources, which have laid bare the astounding but brazen partisanship and corruption of the national news networks and press companies.

John O’Connor’s book Postgate helps show how that recently-revealed corruption is nothing new. His story harkens all the way back to the Watergate scandal that began in 1972, nearly a half-century ago. It revolves around events and discoveries that arose from his becoming the late-in-life legal representative for former FBI agent Mark Felt, who was revealed as Deep Throat, the shadowy confidential source for much of the explosive reporting on Watergate during the scandal. He doesn’t challenge the popular story of conspiracy and criminality in the Nixon administration that led to the President’s resignation. But he adds a whole new layer of facts showing that we’ve only known part of the total story of corruption from those days. And one of his chief revelations is that a major US newspaper, and their star reporters who were central to the drama, played an active role in the wrongdoing in that scandal (along with other parts of the US government). Further, he shows that that media team’s same self-serving corruption continues right to the present day.

This book is critical for setting the complete record of Watergate straight, particularly as it reveals criminal wrongdoing that – previously unrevealed and unaddressed – arguably led to the treason we’ve seen just these past few years from the CIA, FBI, and DOJ. It should also serve to finally put a stake in the heart of any belief that our mainstream political reporters and their employers are to be trusted in any way.

I thank John O’Connor for two personal benefits from reading his book. First, I’ve long held myself as something of a rube, one who is far too trusting and naïve. It’s something I’ve always felt stemmed from my small-town upbringing far from the backstabbing world of our cities. It surely had to pain O’Connor to no end to reveal how completely he was scammed and swindled by the media outlets he dealt with. But it was somewhat heartening to me to see that a savvy lawyer well-acquainted with Washington, DC, could be taken in too. Maybe I’m not such a rube after all. Maybe we normal folks just can’t entirely insulate ourselves from evil people.

Second, for the longest time, I believed a conspiracy could succeed only if very few people were involved; otherwise its secrecy would be blown, it would fail, and those involved would pay the price for their wrongdoing. But the extent of the conspiracies revealed in this book, combined with the recent revelations of the scale of the “collusion” scandal, have proven to me just how wrong my notions about conspiracies have been.

Do read this book.