Posted on 06/01/2005 10:49:45 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
How, after 33 years of secrecy, did The Washington Post get scooped on its own story about the tantalizing mystery of Deep Throat?
The answer is that Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Ben Bradlee felt they were in a box -- the promise of confidentiality made to W. Mark Felt during the Nixon administration -- and were not convinced that the 91-year-old former FBI agent was lucid enough to release them from that pledge.
Family members "have said he just doesn't have any memory now," Woodward said yesterday, referring to e-mails he received from Felt's relatives. The dilemma, said Woodward, was whether "someone in his condition and age" was "competent" to make the decision to go public.
"I had been in touch with Mark Felt," said Woodward, the best-selling author who is an assistant managing editor at The Post. "How was his health? Had he changed his mind about being identified? This was an ongoing reporting enterprise." Felt suffered a mild stroke in 2001.
Woodward said the Vanity Fair story detailing Felt's role came as a total surprise to him when it was released Tuesday morning. "I didn't know he was gearing up to go public," he said.
To Bradlee, who was the paper's executive editor during Watergate, there was no decision to be made. "If you give your word you're not going to do it, you can't do it," said Bradlee, now a Post Co. vice president. "We were the only people who were clinically and morally bound not to break this story, so how could we break it?"
What's more, Bradlee said of Felt, "the guy has not got all his marbles. The question was whether he could have given us permission."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Maybe a little sodium penethol is indicated?
The Post looks better today because Woodward and Bernstein allowed themselves to be scooped.
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Agreed.
Hi, FMC:
After having People Magazine say "No dice" to the Felt's family "coming out" of their Daddy as "Deep Throat" in 2002. It would appear that the slimy, bureaucrat careerist schnook's apples didn't fall that far from the tree.
Perhaps, people should take the old man's long ago advice and "Follow The Money".
Jack.
Lost the scoop and they all lost books they would have produced covering the guy.
Now nobody will care.
I read that Felt approached Woodward about book and films, but Bob bobbled it.
Gee, you give the guy Jason Robarbs playing him in a Major Motion Picture (winning the Academy Award for it) and THIS is the thanks you get?
I am wondering if the Post did not pay for the story because they felt it was legally dangerous to do so; ie. . .if someone from the Felt family woodpile challenged them. ..sued them. . .because of Felt's infirmity. . .
. . .or if the Government could go after W&B or the Post; for what would now be. . .what it would have been then. . .the Post paying a FBI Agent for 'classified' information about a President. . .a treason at some level. . .it would seem.
The 'Order of the Left' ; the same then as now. . .
Ever notice how the very name 'Watergate' is successfully embedded with all the 'evil of Nixon'/the disgrace of a Republican President and his humiliation of resignation. . .it is a scandal of a 'burglary' by the 'bad guys'; who tried to get the 'good guys' and failed.
'Watergate'. . .it has been made, the beginning and 'end of story' - in one word. . .
And now this story, made into the mythic. . .is begetting another. A chapter, that describes a hero, saving his Country from an evil President. . .
It is the Left doing what it does best; not making 'silk' from a pig's ear. . .but making a 'pig's ear' out of silk.
(. . .so to speak - and no insult to any pig, intended. . .)
These same folks who pilloried Linda Tripp.
Fascinating how all of a sudden MF is just not "competent" -- especially since his story might not match theirs.
Of course it's all about money now. I have to LOL that Woodward's publisher (simon & shuster) is scrambling to get Woodward's "Deep Throat" book published before MF's greedy relatives can pen one of their own.
If they gave the newspapers away this canard would make sense, but as long as they charge for the paper (and bill their advertisers) they're hypocrites in the extreme...
The Washinton Post's circulation increased based on their Watergate reporting; their advertisers were charged accordingly.
The WaPo was paid handsomely for the work of their reporters stenographers; they just didn't want to share the profits, which in my book makes them double (or triple) shmucks
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