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Journalism of Courage
On May 30, 2005, an enduring 20th-century mystery was solved when the family of W. Mark Felt Sr revealed through John D. O8217;Connor8217;s article in Vanity Fair that the man Richard M. Nixon had always suspected, without proof, as 8220;Deep Throat8221;, was indeed Deep Throat. Soon, another enigma ended: why Deep Throat, who helped Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover what would become the biggest political scandal of the last century, was never caught. The FBI official in charge of unmasking Deep Throat was Felt himself. Felt, the then associate director of the FBI, died in California on Thursday, at the age of 95.
By the time Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Watergate was already legend, as were Woodward and Bernstein. Books and movies followed; they still do. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman starred with Hal Holbrook as the mystery man in the 1976 adaptation of Woodward and Bernstein8217;s 1974 book, All the President8217;s Men. And remember the birth of MAC Red lipstick? Woodward8217;s The Secret Man, written beforehand, came out about a month after O8217;Connor8217;s revelation. It took two years since the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee8217;s headquarters to unseat Nixon. But Deep Throat8217;s courage changed for ever public perception of the White House and US politics, almost making Philip Roth8217;s 1971 satire of the Nixon administration, Our Gang, prophetic in retrospect and the template for posterity8217;s judgments.
