Musings 42--Thoughts on "Deep Throat"

In the 1970's the late Linda Lovelace starred in a porno movie called Deep Throat. It was the first of the really slick porn films. It kind of took adult movies to new heights--or depths depending on your point of view. However, Linda Lovelace's flick is not the most noted used of the term "Deep Throat." Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein needed a name for their anomyous source that was feeding them information on the Watergate Office Building burglary and the illegal activities of President Richard Nixon. They chose "Deep Throat" for reasons entirely known only to them. You can let your mind wonder...I know I do.

Mark Felt, sort of the number two man at the FBI, was apparently upset that he did not get the director's job. Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray, a Nixon insider, to the post. Felt was a friend of Woodward, and thus began the relationship that brought down the President of the United States.

I have been watching the cable news channels, and I am blown away--bad pun--by the rewriting of history by the old Watergate conspirators and players. G. Gordon Liddy, Pat Buchanan, John Dean and Charles Colson have been making their rounds and saying what a nice guy Richard Nixon was. Yeah, right. The man was a crook. He oversaw the cover up of the break in and obstructed justice on more than one occasion. Plus, most of the guys now doing the fictional history are ex-con themselves. There ain't nobody guilty in prison.

I also am amazed at the number of people that say that they suspected all along that Felt was "Deep Throat." I never heard much about him when all the folks were doing their analyses of Woodward's book All the President's Men. John Dean didn't even have him on his top ten list, and he was big on lists.

I have taught journalism classes regarding this time in American history, and I had always maintained that "Deep Throat" was a composite of several different folks. I still stick by this. I think that Mark Felt was probably the main guy, but I would bet that Woodward and Bernstein fudged at bit and used other sources as well as out-right supposition. I could be wrong, but I do have a feel for the journalism of the time.

It seems that Bernstein's son let the cat out of the bag to one of his buddies in 1999, but daddy Carl just poop-pooped it down by saying it was not so on the Today show on NBC. Ah, those kids, they say the darndest things. (Thanks to Art Linkletter for that.)

I guess we should have known that "Deep Throat" was someone who was upset and had decided to get a bit of revenge. That is usually how it works. Most people do not do things because it is right. Just think, if Mark Felt had have been promoted to director of the FBI we would probably be celebrating Richard Nixon Day and the term "Watergate" would have been nothing more than the office building it is.

So Richard Nixon brought his downfall on himself by not appointing Felt as head of the FBI. How ironic is that? Remember when you were in school and the teacher asked if there was one thing you could change in your life. Well, Tricky Dick has an eternity to ponder that one because, you know, that the devil barged in with the news as soon as he found out. "Ole Scratch" never could keep a secret.