Carl Bernstein in the context of "Mark Felt"

The Washington Post (locally known as The Post and, informally, WaPo or WP) is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. In 2023, the Post had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the third-largest among American newspapers after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In 2025, the number of print subscribers had declined to below 100,000 for the first time in 55 years.

The Post was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The Post's 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the investigation into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee, which developed into the Watergate scandal and the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. In October 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos, for US$250 million.

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The affair began on June 17, 1972, when members of a group associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's attempts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and his resignation in August 1974.

Emerging from the White House's intelligence efforts to stop leaks, the Watergate break-in was an implementation of Operation Gemstone, enacted by mostly Cuban burglars led by former intelligence agents E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. After the burglars' arrests, investigators traced their funding to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the fundraising arm of Nixon's campaign. Further revelations from investigators and reporters like the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—who were guided by "Deep Throat", the leaking FBI Associate Director Mark Felt—revealed a political espionage campaign illegally funded by donor contributions. Nixon denied responsibility, but his administration destroyed evidence, obstructed investigators, and bribed the arrested burglars. This cover-up was initially successful and allowed Nixon to win a landslide re-election. Revelations from the burglars' trial in early 1973 led to a Senate investigation. In April, Nixon denied wrongdoing and accepted top aides' resignations.

Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for The Washington Post as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the honorific title of associate editor there, though the Post no longer employs him.

While a reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Woodward teamed up with Carl Bernstein, and the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by longtime journalist and former editor of The New York Times Gene Roberts.

Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal to reporter Bob Woodward in 1972, which was later shared with Carl Bernstein. At the time, Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post. In 2005, 31 years after Nixon's resignation and 11 years after Nixon's death, Mark Felt − who at the time had been Deputy Director of the FBI − revealed through an attorney that he was Deep Throat. By then, Felt was suffering from dementia and had previously denied being Deep Throat, but Woodward and Bernstein then confirmed the attorney's claim.