Deep Throat Changed Us, And Not Always for the Better

The truth is out, Deep Throat was Mark Felt. To those who took the “who was Deep Throat” game seriously, Felt had always been a prime suspect. But, to the rest of us, it’s a little disappointing to find out it wasn’t Pat Buchanan or Diane Sawyer or William Rehnquist or George H. W. Bush or someone else more, well, interesting.

But, in the end, does it matter who Deep Throat was? Some are calling Felt a hero. Some are saying he was something less. But everyone knows that Deep Throat and Watergate changed something in America.

I was born about two weeks after Nixon resigned so I have no direct memory of Watergate or the way things were before. But I know the world in which I grew up and I think I know the two “truths” that Watergate brought into our lives.

1) Government is corrupt.
2) The media’s primary purpose is to uncover wrongdoings

I think both are based on truth but are too simplistic and have created their own problems. Politics is corrupt, it always has been. Nixon didn’t event election year tricks, he just got caught. But just because getting elected often includes some dirty work doesn’t mean government itself is generally corrupt. It can be, but it’s not the hard fact I think many take it to be. When we approach our government and leaders with the view that they are corrupt until proven virtuous, we do ourselves and the country a disservice.

I also think the media is wrong to focus so much on the “gotcha” stories. Yes, we have a right to know about corruption and media should report on it, but the media’s heavy focus on exposing wrongdoing (see the recent Newsweek conflagration) often seems to supersede a commitment to reporting important information. This is why, in the last election, the Swift Boat Vets and Bush’s National Guard service were covered in much greater detail than were the candidates’ actual positions on the issues—uncovering perceived wrongdoings (even ones from over 30 years before) was more important to many in the media than reporting on facts vital to the voters’ decision.

Mark Felt did what was right. But there’s no way he could have guessed that, 30 years later, Watergate’s legacy would still be deeply influencing American institutions--and not always in a positive way.