31 May 2005

Deep throat

Golly. Via Warren Ellis I learn that Vanity Fair has finally let the cat out of the bag about the identity of Woodward & Bernstein's Watergate source Deep Throat, and the Washington Post has confirmed it. Turns out it was W. Mark Felt, the #2 guy at the FBI.

This kinda reminds me of a roundtable discussion I read involving a lot of comic book writers who observed that actually, if the average superhero gets his mask ripped off by a villain, it won't compromise his identity; it's unlikely that anyone will recognize him. I thought I knew the Nixon cabinet pretty well, and I never heard of this guy.

Personally, I was fond of the theory Haldeman floated in his book, that it was Al Haig --- a theory so crazy that it just might be true. Only it turns out ... not so much.

In fact, it seems that all the cool kids had already guessed, and I was too out of touch to know it. Timothy Noah, for instance, says I told you so. At least I know that Sir William Gull was Jack the Ripper, so I'm not completely clueless.

And if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, Wikipedia, as usual, explains.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Knowing the Nixon Cabinet members would not be helpful in this particular case, since he was FBI. I heard DT's daughter on NPR this morning and she said her father got a big chuckle out of the Washington Post confirming that he was DT. Anything that makes a 91-year old national hero laugh is grand in my book!

Love,

Mom