FOX News is also running with this story, with basically the same information as the CNN story.
Report: Ex- FBI official says he was 'Deep Throat'
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 Posted: 12:41 PM EDT (1641 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- A former FBI official says he was the source called "Deep Throat" who leaked secrets about President Nixon's Watergate coverup to The Washington Post, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday.
W. Mark Felt, 91, who was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s, kept the secret even from his family until 2002, when he confided to a friend that he had been Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's source, the magazine said.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told lawyer John D. O'Connor, the author of the Vanity Fair article, the magazine said in a press release.
Felt was initially adamant about remaining silent on the subject, thinking disclosures about his past somehow dishonorable.
"I don't think (being Deep Throat) was anything to be proud of," Felt indicated to his son, Mark Jr., at one point, according to the article. "You (should) not leak information to anyone."
Felt is a retiree living in Santa Rosa, Calif., with his daughter, Joan, the magazine said. He could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press.
The Washington Post had no immediate comment.
Felt is one of a number of people who have been named over the years as the source whose disclosures helped bring down the Nixon presidency. Others include Assistant Attorney General Henry Peterson, deputy White House counsel Fred Fielding, and even ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer, who then worked in the White House press office.
In 1999, Felt denied he was the man.
"I would have done better," Felt told The Hartford Courant. "I would have been more effective. Deep Throat didn't exactly bring the White House crashing down, did he?"
The question I have is how is this story not front page news?
Well, anyone can claim to be Deep Throat. I think this would be a bigger deal if he had corroborating evidence, or if Woodward or Bernstein came down and said, "Yup, that's him."
Everybody is going to hold their breath until the Washington Post confirms or denies. If it's not him this is all some horrible conspiracy by the liberal media to drag up old Republican scandals and discredit the President, people will lose their jobs.
Identity of 'Deep Throat' Source Revealed
AP - 11 minutes ago
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The Washington Post said Tuesday that a former FBI official, W. Mark Felt, was the confidential source known as "Deep Throat" who provided the newspaper information that led to President Nixon's impeachment and eventual resignation. The paper made its announcement on its Web site after Felt, 91 and living in California, talked to a lawyer who wrote a magazine article for Vanity Fair. "The No. 2 guy from the FBI, that was a pretty good source," said Ben Bradlee, who had been the key editor at the Post in the Watergate era.
I've been in internet land too long... I keep thinking... "Spoiler! Spoiler!" :D
Fricka
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Supposedly the Post was going to announce this in Deep Throat's obit, which was written many years ago in preparation. Read their story tomorrow and see if you can spot the bits that assume Felt is dead!
And scooped by Vanity Fair on a story you sat on for 30 years. Harsh.
Woodward & Bernstein Confirm: Felt Was 'DeepThroat'
Tue May 31, 6:23 PM ET
NEW YORK The Washington Post late this afternoon confirmed that W. Mark Felt, the former FBI official, was legendary Watergate source "Deep Throat."
Following half a day of speculation set off by a report in the July issue of Vanity Fair, the final word came from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, and their former top editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee.
Woodward said he is writing an article for Thursday's Post that will provide a personal account.
In a statement, Woodward and Bernstein said, "W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate." They had kept the identity of Deep Throat secret at the source's request, saying his name would be revealed upon his death.
"We've kept that secret because we keep our word," Woodward said.
Bradlee told the Post today, "The thing that stuns me is that the goddamn secret has lasted this long." He said he had never met Felt and wouldn't know him if he fell over him. He only learned his identify just after Nixon's resignation.
According to the newspaper, "Woodward said Felt helped The Post at a time of tense relations between the White House and much of the FBI hierarchy. He said the Watergate break-in came shortly after the death of legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Felt's mentor, and that Felt and other bureau officials wanted to see an FBI veteran promoted to succeed Hoover.
"Felt himself had hopes that he would be the next FBI director, but Nixon instead appointed an administration insider, assistant attorney general L. Patrick Gray, to the post."
Bradlee, in an interview this afternoon, told the Post that knowing Deep Throat was a high-ranking FBI official "helped him feel confident about the information that the paper was publishing about Watergate." He called someone in that position "a pretty good source...I knew the paper was on the right track."
--Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) editor of E&P.
If i had any political secrets to reveal i would reveal them in Newsweek or TV Guide. Also, they would most likely have to do with a conspiracy involving Emeril. BAM!
The post has been brought to you by pimpsareus as a pretext to say "BAM!" in a post and in no way reflects the views and beliefs of the Institution. "BAM!" is a trademark owned by Chef/Mr./Doctor Emeril Lagasse. Thank you and good night. THERE IS NO INSTITUTION!
Vanity Fair occasionally gets some interesting stories. When they're not showing a pregnant Demi Moore on their cover that is. I think their last big story was probably the one the movie The Insider was based on.
I too am saddend by the fact that I can't use Ben Stein jokes anymore.
