But when it came to President Clinton, he noted, reporters suddenly developed a distaste for whistleblowers.

"I mean, did they make Linda Tripp a hero?" the former Nixon speechwriter asked plaintively. "At least she was public about it."

Buchanan said that when Felt leaked information about the FBI's ongoing Watergate probe to the press, he set a dangerous precedent that should concern reporter and citizen alike.

"Let's realize that the FBI has secret files from full field investigations on everybody that served in the highest offices of government," he noted. "And if they start deciding who and what investigations they're gonna leak to the Washington Post, you've got a police state."

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