deep throat, inc.

June 8, 2005 11:22 AM

"Bob Woodward's gonna get all the glory for this, but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills." Or not.
posted by delmoi (11 comments total)

That's a pretty revealing article. It feels so good to have history pimped out like that. It really makes one feel as if everyone is in it for the right reasons. (I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't profit from their work, but come on.)
posted by OmieWise at 12:10 PM on June 8, 2005

unreadable.
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:32 PM on June 8, 2005

I think it's pretty naïve of Joan Felt to think that Woodward wouldn't have something big ready to release the moment he could. Did she not hear that he had an obit standing by? Is she really that far out of the loop?

That said, Mark Felt obviously isn't in this for the glory or he would have written his own book years ago. It bothers me to think that not only is his thunder being stolen out from under him by a "bigshot" but that he didn't want to be exposed anyway. I know his family wants to make a few bucks off of his story while they still can, but really, if he can't remember the events clearly, there's no story. And no story means no money.

And no money means their reason into pressuring a 91 year old man to reveal his secret identity is moot. If they really wanted to do this for his honor, they wouldn't be searching for book deals for a man who can't remember what it is he's supposed to be writing about.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:38 PM on June 8, 2005

Trash.
posted by fleacircus at 12:46 PM on June 8, 2005

John Tierney had a good piece on this issue (link still works, but will be archived soon, I believe).
posted by pardonyou? at 12:56 PM on June 8, 2005

Why I Wouldn't Want to Mentor Bob Woodward
posted by wendell at 1:21 PM on June 8, 2005

I wonder whether going public was at all Mark Felt's idea or whether it was pushed on him by his family, who figured they had a better chance to profit while he's still alive. Perhaps it's all media distortion, but his daughter comes off as caring only about how much money she personally stands to earn out of this.
posted by rhiannon at 1:57 PM on June 8, 2005

Agreed, all the press / remarks I've seen from the Felt family suggest that they were interested in getting money now. Not that I'm passing judgement on that , I think I read one account where they were looking to afford more care for Mr. Felt.

Having said that, when you've got Bob Woodward, a more than established journalist and book author with established connections and printings -- why would you try to move around him in securing literary/story rights? Just bizarre, I mean, Felt was an informant for Bob and Carl's reporting. Isn't it really their show?
posted by cavalier at 3:45 PM on June 8, 2005

Is she really that far out of the loop?

Considering that she didn't know who Woodward was when he came to visit Felt (according the VF article), I'd say yes.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:26 PM on June 8, 2005

perhaps the family would see it as at least being honest in admitting that money is a motivation for putting out the news; but if they're that concerned about being honest, why wouldn't they see that (what many consider) the heroism of what this guy did is incredibly diminished by the fact that he even appears to be part of a push to personally profit from it?

i disllike as well their general characterization of woodward cashing in on the story (at least in how i read the story)...as cavalier mentions, it was the reporters' story--it's not as if felt handed them the text of their articles; they did the work to put it out there. (a side note: last week I happened to catch bill o'reilly on 'the view' [yeah, ok, laugh already] a day or two after this story broke, and he was going on about how woodward & bernstein really did the solid journalistic work of developing the story over time and getting it right, rather than rushing the story and screwing it up. not five minutes later, he said that he was investigating Felt's motives for putting the story out at this time--that they might not be so noble--and followed it up by saying "we'll have that report on our show tonight.")
posted by troybob at 8:57 PM on June 8, 2005

another decent article about the Felt family dynamics
posted by stratastar at 12:12 PM on June 9, 2005