Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Follow the Money?

In many of the news stories about the unmasking of Deep Throat, we read the famous line: "Follow the Money." But Deep Throat never said it. In 1997, Daniel Schorr wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times about his search for the phrase's origin. When he could not find it in book version of All the President's Men, he spoke to William Goldman, who wrote the script of the movie version. “I can’t believe I made it up,” said Goldman. “I was in constant contact with [Bob] Woodward while writing the screenplay. I guess he made it up.” Woodward thought that Goldman had made it up. Whoever wrote the line, concluded Schorr, “it was an invention.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great, you're telling me I have to give up another American saying? First I lose my "America is great because American is good" pillow and now the "Follow the money" wall hanging must go too?

What's next?

joefo said...

Here's another one to give up:
"It's the economy, stupid". That one brought us eight years of flaccid, navel-gazing inattention to the rising threat of Islamo-fascism.

Anonymous said...

I believe, however, that "It's the economy, stupid" was actually said.

The faux-Tocqueville and nouveau-faux money quotations were not.

Anonymous said...

"That one brought us eight years of flaccid, navel-gazing inattention to the rising threat of Islamo-fascism."


I would say eight years of a booming economy. I am not an apologist for any politician but it is also fairly well documented that they were aware of the threat, took it seriously and tried to tell the incoming administration that it was the number one foreign threat concern.