Woodward & Bernstein Reunite With Deep Throat: Like "Visiting Family"

Iced tea accompanied a historic moment in Santa Rosa this past weekend when famed Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein came by to see and thank their secret source, 95-year-old Mark "Deep Throat" Felt.

The two-hour visit at Felt's home was an especially big deal to Bernstein. He had never before met Felt, the FBI's former No. 2 man and one-time heir apparent to J. Edgar Hoover.

Back in the early 1970s, when Felt furtively and bravely helped guide two young Washington Post reporters onto a trail of corruption that led to Richard Nixon's White House, it was always Woodward who rendezvoused in the shadows with his highly placed source.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[THE JEDI 69]

He snitched because he got passed over...what other secrets does he know...

[Retrofuturistic]

Back then when there was a free press, someone like Deep Throat had a place to express himself.

Now the media is controlled by right-wing interests and has been politicized, just like the Justice Dept. That is the only reason we haven't had a revolution (aside from the fact that our "representation" was also bought by rich right-wing interests). The press wouldn't tell us when and where the Boston Tea Party was being held, so no one could show up.

[mervr1]

It's such a shame we don't have anymore real investigative reporters like Woodward and Bernstein or any real patriots like Felt. If we did Bush and Cheney probably wouldn't have lasted as long as they have.

Reporters today are more tabloid reporters than anything else and are too scared to go after the big stories. They and the news organizations today are more interested in quick ratings than substance.

[AlligatorShuz]

I wonder what else did Mark Felt expose because there was the assainations of JFK & MLK?

[MissingAmerica]

We needed a "Deep Throat" during the Bush/Cheney regime. Watergate was bad, and those who committed the crime paid. But the crimes committed by this administration over the past 8 years make Watergate look like Sunday School! We know that Woodward and Bernstein made attempts, but we had no brave souls in this administration, only un-American sycophants, Judas goats leading us all to slaughter. It would appear that Mr. Felt is a one-of-a-kind.

[Wiserone]

From what I've read, Felt, was more of a wanna-bee. Passed over for the head job after Hoover and one should not be surprised that he had more than just a passing grudge with the administration. Yet, I wonder if Felt did KNOW that much or was he more or less just trying to give himself more of a legacy than the one who lost the golden ring?

[MsLiz]

No one operates with purely altruistic motives, so if Mark Felt was frustrated that he would not become FBI director, that's just another biographical fact which makes the history interesting. Nevertheless, what he revealed was true. It's been decades since I read "All The President's Men," but my recollection is that everything Deep Throat revealed was backed up by two other sources, at a minimum. Since Nixon's resignation, more has been revealed that proves that Nixon was involved in covering up the burglary of the DNC and a conspiracy to subvert justice.

Oh, and if you want to have any credibility, don't give yourself such a self-aggrandizing name.

[TomCinIllinois]

Since news of the identity of Deep Throat was first published, I have felt -- perhaps believed is a better word -- that the existence of the intelligence network that Hoover and, later, Felt ran inside the White House, a network they used to glean information used to blackmail several Presidents, was a more shocking scandal than Watergate itself.

Nobody should ever be allowed to wield the power exercised by J. Edgar Hoover. If Felt was Hoover's protege, Nixon was right to pass him over for the head of the FBI. He should have them behaved better in the White House and elsewhere in order to avoid Felt's retaliation.

[MsLiz]

Nixon's motive for passing over Felt was not concern over the integrity of the FBI.

[TomCinIllinois]

I didn't mean to suggest that Nixon's motivation was a concern about good government. But whatever Nixon's motive, based on what we know now, passing over Felt was the right thing to do.

[CologneCitizen]

With Watergate America lost her innocence, BUT it put investigative journalism on the map. Where were these guys in the last 8 years? If only the media had done their job, the USA would have never gotten into the current mess. Parallell to the rise of the Bush administration critical journalism was dying or non existent. We read about journalists getting fired when they would not stick to the "official" line of reporting what was wanted from the White House. I am glad Obama was elected. Maybe the media can recover in his presidency.

[oiba]

For some reason, I thought Felt passed in 2003?

[SamEllison]

I'm sorry people but my take on this is that Felt planted Woodward in the Washington Post.
How did Woodward wind up at the Post? I may be wrong but.......

[lungfish]

Yea, Deep Throat is no hero. He exposed the Nixon/Watergate breakin in retaliation for being passed over for the number one slot in the FBI...... and the result of his own hubris was the deaths of a lot of Vietnamese and American soldiers as well as the fall of South Vietnam.
How?
Because, Nixon had promised air support of the ARVN/South Vietnamese Army that were stationed at the DMZ. However, since the President was resigning nobody else was ready to follow through with that promise. When the NVA made a small probe into the DMZ, the airsupport didn't arrive and the SVA were routed... meanwhile the NVA pushed as fast as they could roll and the result was the fall of the Vietnam to the Communists....
So there you have it... we caught a crook but it cost South Vietnam and the US dearly....

[RogerRantjet]

That logic is faulty & ridiculous to begin with...but put that aside for a moment. Nixon was succeeded by Gerald Ford in Aug/74. That war was already hopelessly lost by that time...but if we apply your kind of naive analysis then Ford dropped the ball and was therefore solely responsible for "losing" an unwinnable war. I don't believe that anymore than I believe your original premise.

[MsLiz]

Heck I was just a school girl but I knew in 1968 that the war was unwinnable.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

And if Clinton hadn't been impeached, maybe he would have shot bin Laden personally.

Fercrissakes.

[jerrypl]

Where is Bush's Deep Throat?

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Minneapolis Airport

[OutsourcedAgain]

LMAO! But do you have a stall number.

[wagthedog1001]

Good question. We know Clinton's!

[GeoLee]

It is really too bad that Woodward did not keep the sense of responsibility to the country his work in the 70's showed and became coopted by the very political evils his investigative reporting then opened to the world''s view. He might have prevented the reelection of George Bush from occurring had he not waited until after the election to reveal things he had learned and put in his book. He lost his moral compass for the fame and glory and MONEY Mark Felt's revelations brought him..

[Crozier]

Mark Felt is an unsung American hero.

Why is he different than Richard Nixon or William Clinton? Why did Felt hide his identity as "DEEP THROAT" for decades. Maybe, as a professional spook, he knew that "coincidences" were often planned:


http://www.deadlawyers.com/clinton.htm

[RogerRantjet]

This is what 2 real journalists and a true patriot with the guts to do the right thing look like. These men set the bar over 35 years ago. No one else has come close since.

[bikerdude]

What bothers me is what they have done from then until now. Lets see what the next generation of investigative reporters can do. They surely failed in holding the failed bush regime accountable.