An Error of Transcription: "Bah" or "ACT"?

While recovering from a slipped disc, Municipal Bond Trader John B. Northrop (right) of Huntington, N.Y., spent four days carefully reading President Nixon's Watergate transcripts --and discovered a rather sloppy error.

His find drew an admission from the White House last week that two typists had independently transcribed the same portion of a meeting between the President (P) and Assistant Attorney General Henry E. Petersen (HP) on April 16, 1973. The overlap slipped by, and the two versions appeared in tandem in the published transcript as separate conversations. The error was not caught sooner because the versions differ so markedly, underscoring the House Judiciary Committee's argument that only the tapes will suffice as evidence in its impeachment inquiry. Comparisons of parts of the two versions:

FIRST VERSION

HP: Personally [inaudible], well, I've been [inaudible] and have advised the Jury of that fact and two that [Acting FBI Director L. Patrick] Gray, from what [former U.S. Attorney Harold H.] Titus who has [inaudible] of the [inaudible] over there has to go to see Sirica.

P: I don't think [inaudible] that's [inaudible].

HP: That's [inaudible]. I don't think he will do anything unless it's in the current [inaudible] of proceeding he's in [inaudible]. I can't conceive a point which of Titus and--if there.

P: This timing thing I think is terribly important--you know.

HP: I think it is.

P: Can't have the President--after all--after all these months and what we've gone through and now once I have learned something of it I say "bah."

SECOND VERSION

HP: [Inaudible] question, [inaudible] I told him one, I would be willing to go [inaudible] and advise his lawyers of that fact and, two, that they--and by that I mean Titus who has the best relationship with Sirica over there--is going to have to wait and see Sirica, ah--P: [Inaudible].

HP: That's a problem. That's a risk we would have to take. I don't think he will. I don't think he will do anything unless it is the context of a proceeding in his court. I can't conceive of him urging the [inaudible] of Titus and [inaudible].

P: [Inaudible] timing on this is terribly important you know, because

HP: I understand it is.

P: You can't have the press--after all these months and what we have gone through and all. Once, I find something out--I say--ACT!

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