Mark Felt, the former FBI official who covertly kept Bob Woodward -- and by extension, Carl Bernstein -- on track in their reporting on the Watergate scandal that eventually brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, has died at age 95.
In 2005, Mr. Felt revealed that he was the one who had secretly supplied Bob Woodward of The Washington Post with crucial leads in the Watergate affair in the early 1970s. His decision to unmask himself, in an article in Vanity Fair, ended a guessing game that had gone on for more than 30 years.
See this post from May 31, 2005: Former FBI official confirmed as Deep Throat
The disclosure even surprised Mr. Woodward and his partner on the Watergate story, Carl Bernstein. They had kept their promise not to reveal his identity until after his death. Indeed, Mr. Woodward was so scrupulous about shielding Mr. Felt that he did not introduce him to Mr. Bernstein until this year, 36 years after they cracked the scandal. The three met for two hours one afternoon in Santa Rosa, where Mr. Felt had retired. The reporters likened it to a family reunion.
Mr. Felt played a dual role in the fall of Mr. Nixon. As a secret informant, he kept the story alive in the press. As associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he fought the president’s efforts to obstruct the F.B.I.’s investigation of the Watergate break-in.
Without Mr. Felt, there might not have been a Watergate — shorthand for the revealed abuses of presidential powers in the Nixon White House, including illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. Americans might never have seen a president as a criminal conspirator, or reporters as cultural heroes, or anonymous sources like Mr. Felt as a necessary if undesired tool in the pursuit of truth.
It's been said that journalists are only as good as their sources. I think that's partly true. The legendary I.F. Stone based his work on the belief that everything is on the public record, if only you know where to look.
But at some point, you might need someone on the inside to clue you in, to help you understand what's really going on.
In the case of Watergate, Felt accomplished that magnificently through his secret, "deep background' meetings with Woodward.
Read All The President's Men to see what I mean.
Give Woodward too. He was working on the most sensitive story imaginable, and yet he maintained the trust of his sources. Woodward and Bernstein also said in 2005 that while Felt was undeniably important, he was still just one of many sources.
In any event, it's still a fascinating case study.