I'm Surprised it Wasn't Geraldo Making the Announcement on Live TV

Matt Welch | May 31, 2005

In one of the biggest let-downs in the history of hype, Watergate's "Deep Throat" apparently turns out to be ... W. Mark Felt.

Comments

|5.31.05 @ 1:48PM|#

"In one of the biggest let-downs in the history of hype..."

Does that mean you were hopin' for Al Haig or Henry Kissinger?

...Even if it really had been Kissinger, the revelation would have been too spectacular to believe.

Matt Welch|5.31.05 @ 1:50PM|#

I was hoping for at least someone I'd heard of....

|5.31.05 @ 1:52PM|#

I always thought it was Linda Lovelace.

|5.31.05 @ 1:58PM|#

Or Buchanan. Or Rehnquist. There were lots of sexier suspects. It was somewhat anti-climactic, but kudos to those who have been claiming it was Felt for some time now.

Now if we only knew who killed Nicole Brown Simpson.

|5.31.05 @ 2:01PM|#

No, *I* am Deep Throat...

|5.31.05 @ 2:10PM|#

Or Ben Stein. Then thoreau would've won Deep Throat's money. :)

|5.31.05 @ 2:12PM|#

I thought everyone knew it was Betsy Jobs
and Arlene Lorenzo

|5.31.05 @ 2:19PM|#

But Woodward and Bernstein and Bradlee all refuse to confirm this? I'm still wondering if Deep Throat wasn't a composite character. Supposedly he wasn't in the first draft of their book.

|5.31.05 @ 2:30PM|#

W&B refuse to confirm or deny, still sticking to their promise to reveal DT's name post mortem. But we'll see if they change their mind in light of this.

|5.31.05 @ 2:46PM|#

Since nobody other than Felt will confirm it, I say, blah. My money is on David T (see above)...nobody will confirm or deny him either. Nobody'll really know until W&B bite it. And even then, my general reaction will be, Blah.

|5.31.05 @ 3:38PM|#

If he really was Deep Throat, why would Woodward and Bernstein refuse to confirm it? Pish and tosh.

|5.31.05 @ 4:39PM|#

Well, on reading the piece, it SOUNDS pretty compelling. But after poking through some of Noah's stuff over at Slate, I'd say that there's a question of Felt's mental acuity after his stroke. So there's probably a question of whether he was as clear to his kids as the article presents him to be. And since it's not altogether certain that Felt's voluntarily admitting it, I can see why W&B wouldn't confirm it.

I'm pretty sure it's accurate. But if it turns out to be wrong, I won't be stunned. (Actually, the bummer was finding out that Woodward had officially denied it was Diane Sawyer.)

|5.31.05 @ 5:31PM|#

What? No love for Jerry Hardin?

|5.31.05 @ 5:34PM|#

Just saw a "Breaking News Flash" that Woodward confirmed the story.

|5.31.05 @ 6:29PM|#

Jennifer's right.

...it looks like all three of 'em, Bradlee, Bernstein and Woodward confirmed that it was Felt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Gary Farber|5.31.05 @ 6:34PM|#

Matt, I submit that it's really worth having heard of W. Mark Felt. (Whippersnapper.)

Gary Farber|5.31.05 @ 6:37PM|#

The actual WashPo story is here, by the way. Good frame here.

|5.31.05 @ 6:49PM|#

If W. Mark Felt married someone named Ivana B. Tupp, could she call herself Ivana B. Felt-Tupp?

|5.31.05 @ 8:51PM|#

I thought it was Hal Holbrook...

|5.31.05 @ 10:10PM|#

If nothing else, Mr Felt has the best glasses EVER!

|6.1.05 @ 9:56AM|#

Is it just me, or is it pretty fucking bizarre to have a picture of some snaggle-tooth old man with the banner headline "I am Deep Throat"?

|6.1.05 @ 2:49PM|#

I see all the Nixonites are crawling out of the woodwork to defend their boy and comdemn Mr. Felt as a "traitor" (Buchanan), violating the ethics of law-enforcement (Liddy) and the man who caused the fall of Cambodia (Ben Stein, with a straight face).

Me, I say sic semper tyrannis...

|6.2.05 @ 6:51AM|#

Maybe I'm just too young to have much of an interest in this, but why is this such a big deal? ... breaking news! that's right folks, it's still fresh after 30 years!

I dunno... seems more suitable for the gossip column than the front page.

Yeah, I understand the guy was involved in one of the biggest political scandals of recent history, but according to Bernstein and Woodward, all he did was confirm things they found from other sources. Doesn't strike me as all that interesting. I'll have to ask my parents if it's more important if you lived through the events.