"There he was, right in the middle of my Throat-searching radar"

June 17, 2002 9:06 AM

"There he was, right in the middle of my Throat-searching radar" John Dean unmasks Deep Throat, sort of, in his Salon e-book. Who do you think it is?
posted by kirkaracha (17 comments total)

no one seems inclined to actually say who he is outright, so i'm vastly uninterested. i'd be more interested in the details of the affair were i to know.
posted by moz at 9:19 AM on June 17, 2002

Creating Deep Throat was Woodward and Bernstein's way of preventing the story from being reassigned to more senior Post reporters at the time, like David Broder. Claiming that "the 'source' will only talk to us" was their way of keeping ownership. So, there is no Deep Throat.

p.s. The only people capable of unmasking Deep Throat are Woodward and Bernstein, not John Dean. Unless, of course, he was Deep Throat.
posted by dack at 10:00 AM on June 17, 2002

I like that he (if he existed and he was a he) was named after a porn movie, one which, by the way, is supposedly "intelligent, musical, funny, and as sexy as they come!"

But I, too, don't give a damn. I hate when news (?) gets the coy treatment so someone can build publicity and make more money. Out with it, bastards, or shut up.
posted by pracowity at 10:02 AM on June 17, 2002

I always thought Deep Throat was Alexander Haig, mainly because Hal Holbrook looked and acted so much like him in "All The President's Men".

Well, that's not the only reason. I'm not that shallow. Am I?
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:03 AM on June 17, 2002

I've always thought it was George H.W. Bush.

Now I see I'm not the only one.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:03 AM on June 17, 2002

Funny, I always thought it was this guy.
posted by Tin Man at 10:23 AM on June 17, 2002

I thought Woodward even kept Deep Throat's identity from Bernstein. I am pretty sure the only people who know/knew were Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham and Woodward.
posted by jodic at 10:25 AM on June 17, 2002

I thought it was Patty Patty Buch Buch.
posted by engelr at 10:36 AM on June 17, 2002

This class at the U. of Illinios says it's Buchanan. And the class is taught by a Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune. So that's interesting. Four people who know Deep Throat's identity still live -- Woodward, Bernstein, Ben Bradlee and Throat. Woodward says he'll reveal Throat's identity when Throat dies. It's fascinating stuff -- this is the uber-source, one who corroborated and guided the investigation which forced Nixon to resign.
posted by krewson at 10:44 AM on June 17, 2002

A paper I wrote on it in high school (ca. 1993) asserted it was Mark Felt of the FBI.

His hometown newspaper has apparently come to the same conclusion. (And to think I was so proud of my analysis of the Nixon tapes...)
posted by tingley at 11:10 AM on June 17, 2002

Dean refers (tho this article doesn't) -- to a small group of people who it "could" be -- anybody know who they are?

And by the way, next time David Talbot refers to Salon as journalism, try and think of the last time a real newspaper or newsmagazine pulled punches like this, for the sake of promoting a book it was publishing.
posted by luser at 11:43 AM on June 17, 2002

Re: krewson's comments, here's an article in today's Chicago Tribune covering the Pat Buchanan angle...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/showcase/chi-0206150195jun15.story?coll=chi-news-hed
posted by mathis23 at 11:47 AM on June 17, 2002

Here, here, ed. In the weeks leading up to this, Talbot, Salon and Dean were all hyping this as the book to end all books on the DT question, that Dean had great evidence on his chosen Throat. (As if anyone under 30, a good percentage of the Web readership, really gives a damn ...). Now, after a last minute postponement scare, Dean has not one but four names, none of which haven't been fielded before. Jesus; who cares? This all reminds me of Geraldo's TV special on the opening of Al Capone's vault. Now that was pathetic.
posted by risenc at 12:10 PM on June 17, 2002

Um. Well, NewsMax are surely not short of axes to grind, ed, and trying to paint Dean as "Clintonian" is nothing if not revealing ... of NewsMax. Horrors, they find legal opinions that differ from Dean's! He must be a fool to have his own!

He's been writing for FindLaw for a couple of years now, and while I certainly wouldn't agree with everything he says, he's not bad -- and he's as entitled to anyone to, as you put it, reclaim his reputation. His service in government does qualify him, if not uniquely, to comment on the legal aspects of governance.
posted by dhartung at 12:41 PM on June 17, 2002

Ed, are you seriously proposing newsmax.com as a credible source? People can have differing political views, but shouldn't present simplistic cheerleading for one side as journalism. I mean, these people are resorting to calling Carl Bernstein an "oldy moldy" and defending Nixon by asserting that Clinton's crimes were worse. They then use that comparison as an excuse to go back to the tiresome chronicle of Clinton's "crimes," rehashing long-discredited stories.

Please.

The reason the article you link to is so unfavorable to Dean is that the writer is steamed that Dean did not go along with the cover-up and fire the special prosecutor in the famous Saturday Night Massacre.
posted by lackutrol at 12:42 PM on June 17, 2002

Dean was no spotless bunny in the Watergate affair or any number of other illicit activities that were part of the Nixon administration. He was, after all, Nixon's counsel and served time for his part in the cover-up.

Also, just as a credibility note...he's repudiated his own books...when he decided it was time to sue someone else...just as this one was changed at the last minute to have four potential "Throats", instead of just one.

I show my age by admitting that I remember Watergate, but in my opinion, they're all crooks, liars and defamers of America...and I'd rather sit naked on Texas blacktop at high noon than give one of them money to read their "opinions".
posted by dejah420 at 1:31 PM on June 17, 2002

Dean may not be a spotless bunny, but he is spot on with this statement in the interview:

"How about Deep Throat's leaking?"

"I think he was very courageous -- a real "Profiles in Courage" character. He was one of the few people involved in Watergate who actually followed the code of conduct for government employees. It was adopted by Congress in 1958, and remains in full force and effect to this day. A federal employee owes his loyalty not to a president, a political party or a government entity like the White House, but rather to the American people for whom he or she works. And the code of ethics calls on all officers and employees to report corruption in government when and where they find it. It doesn't say how to report it, and Deep Throat did it his own way."
posted by homunculus at 1:43 PM on June 17, 2002