Several years after Nixon's resignation,[0] Carl Bernstein published a piece in Rolling Stone alleging that over the course of 25 years, the CIA had tasked more than 400 journalists for special assignments, including Pulizer Prize winnders and a publisher for the New York Times.

"Some of these..relationships with the Agency were tacit; some were explicit. There was cooperation, accommodation and overlap. Journalists provided a full range of clandestine services-from simple intelligence gather to serving as go-betweens."

Laundering information.

[0] https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-... [1] CIA Officer Frank Snepp discusses planting stories in Vietnam: youtu.be/UwerBZG83YM