Has the ever-tantilizing mystery of Watergate’s “Deep Throat” finally been solved?
No, we’re NOT talking about the “Deep Throat” pictured at left — but that’s who this “Deep Throat” was jokingly named after. This refers to the decades secret of the mysterious source who helped The Washington Post bring down the Nixon administration. And, according to Vanity Fair, W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has said he’s the one (SEE OUR POST ABOVE. Washington Post NOW CONFIRMS IT WAS INDEED FELT):
“I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat,” he told John D. O’Connor, the author of Vanity Fair’s exclusive that appears in its July issue.
Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa, Calif., reportedly gave O’Connor permission to disclose his identity.
“The Felt family cooperated fully, providing old photographs for the story and agreeing to sit for portraits,” Vanity Fair stated in a press release.
And what about the two famous reporters who broke the story, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Oh. Those were the actors…Is there COINFIRMATION of this revelation, which has been — quite seriously — long awaited in journalistic and political circles?
Felt said he was “only doing his duty” and did not seek to bring down Nixon over the cover-up of a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
Carl Bernstein, who with Bob Woodward broke the story as Washington Post reporters, issued a statement neither denying nor confirming Felt’s claim. Bernstein stated he and Woodward would be keeping their pledge to reveal the source only once that person dies.
NBC News commentator Chris Matthews, who wrote a book about Watergate, said he wasn’t surprised, adding that Felt “has always been the leading suspect.”
The last Felt boomlet was in 1999, when a high school senior in New York claimed that Bernstein’s son let the secret slip at a summer camp.
So what do we have?
- It’s possible. And it’s likely since there were earlier reports that filtered out that “Deep Throat” wasn’t going to be around much longer. At 91 it’s hard to imagine Felt being up and around in 15 years.
- There is still NO CONFIRMATION from the two reporters. (SEE POST ABOVE. IT IS NOW CONFIRMED)
So now, if in the end W&B say it was Felt, it’ll be like Bob Dole without Viagra – an anti-climax.
If it ISN’T Felt and turns out to be someone far more high profile expect it to be a major story.
The mystery lives on without 100 percent confirmation.
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher adds this:
Felt, 91, purportedly said he wanted Woodward, who with Carl Bernstein relied on Deep Throat in their reporting, to cooperate.
O’Connor and Felt’s daughter Joan tried to get Woodward to go along. The article pictures Woodward as neither confirming nor denying Felt was Deep Throat but acting in ways that certainly suggest that this is the truth. “Just because I’m talking to you, I’m not admitting that he is who you think he is,” Woodward told O’Connor.
But Woodward was concerned about Felt’s mental state, in talks and a visit with him, and ultimately, he did not go along with a joint exposure plan.
UPDATE II: VIDEO is out, too. The Political Teen has video of Felt’s grandson talking for him.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.