Deep Throat: Hero or Heel?
W. Mark Felt aka Deep Throat
Today, at last, the mystery is solved. Deep Throat has publicly identified himself and confessed. Woodward and Bernstein have broken their silence and confirmed the identity of Deep Throat as being a former second in command of the FBI and spurned successor to the infamous Director Edgar J. Hoover.
Who is it? Well, it's 91-year old W. Mark Felt, who now lives with his daughter and grandchildren in Santa Rosa, California.
What was Mr. Felt's motivation in passing on the FBI's criminal investigation information on the Watergate break-ins to reporters for the Washington Post?
It would appear to have been nothing more than sour grapes.
Felt had been groomed as Hoover's successor as FBI Director. When Hoover died in 1972, however, President Richard Nixon passed him over and choose Justice Department official, L. Patrick Gray, instead.
Coincidently, the Watergate break-in occurred only one month after Hoover's death. Gray later admitted that he had turned over FBI files on the Watergate investigation to White House Counsel John Dean, even though there was widespread suspicion that White House staff might have been involved in either the break-in itself or the subsequent cover-up.
In the midst of this mess, Felt contacted Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and began passing confidential information from FBI files to them....probably as a counter to what Gray was doing with the White House.
Today, at last, the mystery is solved. Deep Throat has publicly identified himself and confessed. Woodward and Bernstein have broken their silence and confirmed the identity of Deep Throat as being a former second in command of the FBI and spurned successor to the infamous Director Edgar J. Hoover.
Who is it? Well, it's 91-year old W. Mark Felt, who now lives with his daughter and grandchildren in Santa Rosa, California.
What was Mr. Felt's motivation in passing on the FBI's criminal investigation information on the Watergate break-ins to reporters for the Washington Post?
It would appear to have been nothing more than sour grapes.
Felt had been groomed as Hoover's successor as FBI Director. When Hoover died in 1972, however, President Richard Nixon passed him over and choose Justice Department official, L. Patrick Gray, instead.
Coincidently, the Watergate break-in occurred only one month after Hoover's death. Gray later admitted that he had turned over FBI files on the Watergate investigation to White House Counsel John Dean, even though there was widespread suspicion that White House staff might have been involved in either the break-in itself or the subsequent cover-up.
In the midst of this mess, Felt contacted Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and began passing confidential information from FBI files to them....probably as a counter to what Gray was doing with the White House.
Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein
There are those who, after learning today that Felt was Deep Throat, have criticized him for not taking the material to the Federal Prosecutor's office. I suspect that there were two reasons why Felt did not choose to do this:
First, it was probably unclear to him whether the Nixon appointees in the Justice Department (including Patrick Gray...whose nomination as Assistant US Attorney General was withdrawn by Nixon in order to appoint him acting FBI Director), could be trusted....especially with Gray passing this info on to the White House.
Second, he had personal reasons to "get even" with Nixon for being snubbed as Hoover's replacement.
The first reason, it seems to me, makes him out to be a sort of hero, performing an end run to expose the Nixon corruption in a way that Nixon could not control.
The second reason, it seems to me, makes him out to be a sort of heel, using the privilege of his law enforcement position to secretly release confidential federal investigative files to the public; something that appears to me to be most certainly illegal and worthy of criminal prosecution.
Ben Bradlee
Until today, only four men knew who Deep Throat was: Felt, Woodward, Bernstein and Post Editor Ben Bradlee. The mystery and its ongoing cache had brought both fame and money to Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post. Now that the secret is out it will be interesting to see the Post, the reporters and Deep Throat himself, fight over publishing rights and movie rights and all the other "rights" associated with making money off of public scandal.
The moral lesson to be learned from all of this would appear to be that a man can be both a hero and heel at one and the same time for doing one and the same thing. It is not inconceivable that Felt could receive a ticker-tape parade on his way to be booked by the FBI for his criminal offense. After 30 years, however, the statute of limitations has long expired. I say, skip the ticker-tape parade, too, and just leave the poor man alone.
Woodward and Bernstein, however, came out of this whole episode smelling like roses. Their integrity is intact. They have honorably protected the identity of their anonymous source until the end. We have yet to see, however, how honorably they will behave when the BIG BUCKS are at stake.
My guess is that Woodward & Bernstein have already written their book and will release it for publication within days. By the time the frenzy is all over we shall all be glad to go back to watching the latest news on Michael Jackson.
The moral lesson to be learned from all of this would appear to be that a man can be both a hero and heel at one and the same time for doing one and the same thing. It is not inconceivable that Felt could receive a ticker-tape parade on his way to be booked by the FBI for his criminal offense. After 30 years, however, the statute of limitations has long expired. I say, skip the ticker-tape parade, too, and just leave the poor man alone.
Woodward and Bernstein, however, came out of this whole episode smelling like roses. Their integrity is intact. They have honorably protected the identity of their anonymous source until the end. We have yet to see, however, how honorably they will behave when the BIG BUCKS are at stake.
My guess is that Woodward & Bernstein have already written their book and will release it for publication within days. By the time the frenzy is all over we shall all be glad to go back to watching the latest news on Michael Jackson.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 5:56 PM
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