Athan Theoharis on Deep Throat

Forty years after the Watergate break-in, historian Athan Theoharis reviews a new book that rebuts the traditional portrait of Watergate whistleblower Mark Felt, a.k.a. "Deep Throat," as a principled official who leaked information because he was concerned over the lawlessness of the Nixon White House. Felt's actions, Theoharis writes, were a self-interested product of the FBI's lawless political culture. But the ironic result of his leaks was to breach the wall of secrecy that had shrouded the bureau's illegal operations from public scrutiny.