ellsberg died today of pancreatic cancer in the age of 92. the disclosure of roughly 7000 pages of pentagon documents led to a landmark supreme court case upholding the first amendment. on a personal level it like to an all-out effort by the nixon white house to discredit him. something you can hear clearly on the white house state of nixon s directing, the message that he wants delivered to the fbi director j edgar hoover. you have to keep our eye on the main hall, the main ball is ellsberg. you have to get this son of a gun. if you remember, it went up to jury deliberations. only to be tossed out by the judge due to a real weaponization of executive power. we are talking illegal wiretapping, and the former psychiatrist office, president nixon s aid offer the judge a job, the fbi director. all of that i had tonight, in the news today, the murder of
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the "Pentagon Papers" about the Vietnam War changing public perceptions of the conflict died on Friday, his family announced. He was 92.
on the main ball, the main ball is ellsberg, we ve got to get the son of a bitch. reporter: ellsberg s case enended, upheleld the righght to publblish from m a landmarkrk mt for ththe free preress. depicted in the 2017 film the post. government secrets. reporter: ellsberg remained a fierce advocate of exposing government secrets. what i am working out is to try to alert people to the danger before the alarm sounds. reporter: had near kissinger, a top advisor to nixon, once called ellsberg the most dangerous man in america. that may have been an exaggeration, but his status as one of the nation s most important whistle-blowers was not. major garrett, cbs news, washington. norah: switching gears now to our weeklong series, the future of cars, many new vehicles rolling off the assembly line have eliminated the traditional dashboards and replaced them with high-tech touchscreens beard cbs s