"Deep Throat" was FBI's #2 Man in 1970s
An American mystery has finally been put to rest: "Deep Throat", the anonymous and long-protected informer who fed reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post inside information about the Nixon White House and its Watergate Scandal was, and is, W. Mark Felt, the FBI's #2 man in the 1970s. An excellent -- and brief -- biography about Felt can be found here. Mr. Felt is now 91 years old and in declining health.
Timothy Noah of Slate had the identity of Deep Throat figured out -- as he's happy to tell everyone -- as far back as 1999, when he wrote an article about Felt.
What do we think of Deep Throat? We're all of the generation after Watergate, so our experiences are necessarily less direct than those of our parents and grandparents. I think he's a hero. Whistleblowers are messengers, and messengers often get killed while everyone is heeding the message. I hope that doesn't happen here, and I don't think it will: enough time has passed.
posted by Sean @ 6/01/2005 11:32:00 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
What truly struck me as bizarre was the parade of characters the media outlets paraded in front of the cameras to pontificate and malign Mr. Throat.
I mean really. Chuck Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, John Dean, Pat Buchanan? It looked like a reunion of the Nixon White House! Was it a surprise to anyone that they all viewed Felt as a traitor, snitch, etc.?
It was interesting that there was little disclosure of the fact that, Mr. Colson and Mr. Liddy might be somewhat biased in their opinions of Felt due to the fact that, as an indirect result of the Washington Post articles, they bother were forced to spend a little time in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Thos of you that know me know that my politically I tend to lean conservative, and I usually vote Republican. But, I do put myself on the side of those who believe that what Felt did was honorable. Even if he did not believe it was until recently.
It must have been pretty scary to be that close to the top of the government power sturcture, and not have anyone to turn to to blow the whistle, since everyone up the chain of command was corrupt.
On a related note, in reading one of the many articles that came out when Woodward and Bernstein donated their papers to the University of Texas, I noticed that they were only in their late 20's when they covered the Watergate story.
Imagine. Before age 30, they had contributed to the first resignation of a sitting president. What have you done lately????
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