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D.T. is out of the Garage

Posted by: e-d0uble on Jun 01, 2005 - 07:47 PM (4612 Reads) Print article Printer-friendly page  Email to a friend

All the topics that's fit to stink. Well, W. Mark Felt was (is) Deep Throat. Woodward and Bernstein have confirmed it as well.

I suppose I'm somewhat upset that 'ol D.T. has finally been unmasked, I'd have much preferred his identity remaining a mystery eternally. I've read that some historians believe Nixon's incessant taping of everything would have done him in regardless of anything D.T. ever leaked to the Post, but I don't buy that for a minute. It's interesting that in Pakula's All the President's Men an FBI Agent character tells Woodward "The stories you're publishing are near verbatim what our reports read". It's no wonder, as Felt was the Deputy Director of the FBI at the time. Some say that using anonymous sources (such as the so-called "garage freak") began a downward spiral in journalism that's only gotten worse as time goes on. I disagree with this theory, as in this case W&B knew this man and his lofty position; they couldn't have doubted his honesty.. although perhaps his motivation was slanted politically. I'll agree that most journalism is complete shit today, no doubt.. but this is no fault of D.T. or of The Post. Speaking of The Post, read one of their staff writer's take on the "revelation" here.
I'll be watching All The President's Men tonight for sure, to commemorate. I happen to love Hal Holbrook's portrayal of Deep Throat.
D.T. is out of the Garage | Log-in or register a new user account | 1 Comment
  
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Re: D.T. is out of the Garage

(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Jun 07, 2005 - 02:32 PM
Va Salut pe voi toti !!! (hello yalls)

 anyways, i read the little blurb which you posted here, ethan.  it certainly was an intriguing bit of news.  and your take o­n it seemed pretty right o­n .....  i think the perspective of the good trotskyists  at wsws.org  (the world socialist web site) with regard to this matter was right-on-the-money .... (sau asa cel putin mie mi s-a parut -- or so at least it seemed to me :)
 
Va Voi Vedea pe voi toti curand (i shall see you all soon)
-- Ari

World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

Watergate in historical perspective: Why does today’s criminal White House face no similar challenge?

By Patrick Martin
3 June 2005

Back to screen version | Send this link by email | Email the author

The family of former top FBI official W. Mark Felt identified him Tuesday as Deep Throat, the government insider who supplied critical information to the Washington Post during the Watergate affair. An article authorized by the family and written by their attorney, John O’Connor, was made public by Vanity Fair magazine. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two reporters most identified with the Watergate investigation that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency in 1974, subsequently confirmed Felt’s identity as their principal secret source.

Felt, now 91 and in poor health following a series of strokes, has not spoken publicly o­n the subject, but he greeted reporters outside his home in Santa Rosa, California after his daughter and grandson issued a statement coinciding with the release of the Vanity Fair article. Felt joined the FBI in 1942, working his way up to the number three position in the agency by 1971, a job for which he was selected by J. Edgar Hoover. He left the bureau in 1973 after he was repeatedly passed over for promotion to the top spot.

The initial media response to the identification of Felt has been a flurry of stories quoting former Nixon aides denouncing Felt as a backstabber and traitor. Patrick Buchanan, Nixon’s former speechwriter and a three-time ultra-right presidential candidate, called Felt “a dishonorable man.” Emphasizing loyalty to the presidency, he added, “I think Mark Felt behaved treacherously.”

Charles Colson, a top organizer of Nixon dirty tricks, now a fundamentalist minister and leading figure in the Christian Right, declared himself “personally shocked” that an FBI official would “go sneaking around dark alleys and talking to reporters.”

It is testimony to the ingrained right-wing bias in the corporate-controlled media that it solicits the opinions of Watergate criminals like Colson, who served four months in prison, and Nixon apologists like Buchanan, and reports their views as though they represented legitimate criticism.

It is ludicrous to suggest that Felt was somehow guilty of an abuse of trust because he failed to join Colson, Buchanan & Co. in covering up the crimes of the Nixon White House. Felt was supervising a criminal investigation into the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices in Watergate, where the ev
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