final credits - deep throat
"The thing that stuns me is that the goddamn secret has lasted this long." -- former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee.
The identity of the person whose 'leaks' ultimately led to the downfall of an American president was finally made public. W. Mark Felt, a former deputy associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was "Deep Throat," the inside source that provided the Washington Post newspaper with confidential information and the advice to "follow the money." Deep Throat was outted May 31, 2005 after 33 years due to public and family pressures.
Deep Throat was the insider reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relied on to fuel a series of breaking news articles in the Post that focused public attention on what was soon to be known as the "Watergate Scandal." The story of the Washington Post's coverage was brought to the movie screen as "All The President's Men" in 1976. The role of Deep Throat was played by Hal Holbrook.
The news of Felt being the mysterious figure behind one of the biggest journalism stories of the modern era was unveiled in Vanity Fair magazine's July, 2005 issue, and was further confirmed by Woodward, Bernstein and editor Ben Bradlee through stories published in the Post.
Nick Jones, Felt's grandson, also confirmed the story in a statement that read, "The family believes my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well." Felt is 91 years old and in frail health since suffering a stroke in 2001.
On June 17, 1972 the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington's Watergate office and hotel/apartment complex was broken into by five men who were eventually linked to the White House. The subsequent cover-up of the break-in by President Richard M. Nixon and a number of his top aides soon became the subject of a Senate committee hearing, and under the threat of impeachment, Nixon resigned in 1974.
The announcement of Felt's involvement in the Watergate scandal raised a number of significant questions among those concerned with the media and the seemier side of celebrity.
Felt's name first came up on several of the "Oval Office Tapes" that Nixon recorded during his presidency. Felt first denied being Deep Throat in an interview with Washingtonian Magazine in 1974. It has been reported that Felt revealed the secret to his family in 2002 when confronted by his daughter Joan. For decades, Felt assumed he would be regarded as a criminal due to violating legal process for revealing information in an ongoing investigation. Felt was once convicted on charges that he authorised illegal break-ins into the homes of suspected members of the Weather Underground movement during the Vietnam War era (he was pardoned by Ronald Reagan in 1981).
However, it seems that besides wanting to secure their father's place in history, Felt's family had another motive in convincing him to come forward. Daughter Joan told Vanity Fair reporter John O'Connor, "Bob Woodward's gonna get all the glory for this, but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education."
As for Felt's motivation to break protocol, the following has to be considered. J. Edgar Hoover, the F.B.I. chief who was appointed to that position for life by President Lyndon Johnson, died a month before the Watergate break-in. Nixon installed Bureau outsider assistant attorney general L. Patrick Gray as a measure to take control of the investigative arm of his government, passing over internal candidates such as Mark Felt.
The roles of Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post are now cast in a new light, questioning how 'investigative' their journalism actually was. Without Deep Throat, would the Post have attached themselves so strongly to the story of the break-in?
Also raised in this context is the state of modern reportage and the current White House. Would a whistle-blower the likes of Felt meet a receptive press, and would the media take on the role of provocateur, in an age of "You're either with us or against us"?
Ironically, in the end it was Deep Throat himself that could not keep America's greatest political secret that only four men (Woodward, Bernstein, Bradlee and Felt) knew and kept for over three decades.
On June 16, 2005, Universal Pictures and the publisher PublicAffairs agreed to pay nearly $1 million for the film and book rights of Mark Felt's life story. The option to produce a film was bought for development by Playtone, the production company owned by the actor Tom Hanks.
During the past several months, several notable Watergate figures have died. Rose Mary Woods, Richard Nixon's secretary who caused the famous 18 1/2 minute gap in a crucial Oval Office recording, died January 22, 2005. George Herman, the reporter who delivered the first broadcast report of the Watergate break-in, died February 8, 2005. Dick Smyser, the reporter who was long thought to have asked the question to which Nixon responded "I am not a crook," died March 14, 2005. Al Wasserman, a CBS "60 Minutes" producer and filmmaker whose documentary "The Making of the President 1972" could not be shown until 1975 because of the evolving Watergate scandal, died March 31, 2005. William Reckert, a transcriber for the U.S. Federal Justice Department who discovered the gap on the Oval Office tape, died April 1, 2005.
For more information about this chapter in American political history, visit Wikipedia's pages devoted to the Watergate scandal, Deep Throat, Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover; and the extensive Watergate.info site.