As if primary sources weren't problematic enough....

A fascinating story on History News Network deals with the difficulties of transcribing tape recordings. Read the story by clicking here.

If you read to the bottom, you'll see how differently three different scholars transcribed one section of the Nixon Oval Office tapes from the Watergate era. It's absolutely amazing how these transcriptions differ.

So, although the tapes of conversations seem as if they would be perfect primary sources, we can see here that their transcriptions must be read with the proverbial grain of salt.