Deep Throat Asks: Are We American Enough Today?

For babies of boomers, Watergate was one of the most formative events of our generation. Many of us became early news junkies and are today's bloggers.

At the time, few of us outside of the Beltway had substantive news on the story for almost a year after the break-in. There was no CNN, no Internet, and the New York Times was not a ubiquitous presence on the doormats of the American heartland. In fact, most newspapers at the time, including the Old Gray Lady herself, poo-pooed the Washington Post story. For a while, Woodward and Bernstein were a joke among the D.C. press corps.

Watergate wasn't "Watergate" until the wheels began falling off the Nixon White House wagon during the Senate hearings in 1973. The date of infamy was August 8, 1974 when the President resigned. That news was truly atomic. The fallout affected us all. On August 9, America awoke to a dawn of cynicism.

Only through the magic of Hollywood did most Americans begin to understand the scandal in any context. And that story pivoted on the mysterious "Deep Throat". Our three decade fascination with Deep Throat says as much about us as it does the man himself. Sure, we are titillated by the porn movie moniker and the now iconic image of the smoking man in the shadows, yet the raw truth about Deep Throat is that he indicts us all: are we American enough to come out of the shadows and blow the whistle on corrupt power?

Today we know there are troubling flaws in the anti-hero who is W. Mark Felt. Aren't all of our favorite literary and real world heroes similarly constructed? That's why they resonate with us so completely. They reflect our own questionable motives and the secrets we all keep on the down-low. That's precisely why most folks stay hidden in times of need. This man stepped forward -- as far as he dared in that turbulent time -- and took a leap of faith that his identity would be kept deep under cover.

Can you imagine such bravery and trust in members of the fourth estate today? Would you trust your story to a toothless watchdog more afraid of being swatted by his corporate masters than of chasing the truth? For this reason, I believe the unsung heroes of Watergate are editor Ben Bradlee for mentoring Woodward and Bernstein through the story and publisher Katharine Graham for giving it the green light despite the castigation of her peers.

Watergate put at stake the very soul of liberty and the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution. Secrets to preserve national security are vastly different than secrets to preserve political power. The similarities of the Nixon White House and the culture created by this sitting administration are eerie enough to lampoon on The Daily Show, but are we brave enough to scratch beyond the yuck-yucks?

Secrecy, subterfuge and the smoldering resentments that infected the executive branch 30 years ago saw our government act out of paranoia against its own people: The Kent State student massacre and the unlawful spying on citizen activists. We have not seen another Kent State -- and I do not believe we will -- but through the Patriot Act, U.S. Citizens have been disappeared and free press stalwarts like Newsweek have been bullied into retractions because an ersatz "Deep Throat" recanted. The latter is particularly troubling when there was ample, independenly corroborated evidence of the veracity of the story by reputable agencies like the International Red Cross.

So here we are again. The fourth estate is trying hard to ignore a story leaked by a British Deep Throat. The begrudging attention the mainstream media have paid to the Downing Street Minutes is straight out of the Watergate playbook: Leak a story, get a young buck reporter hot on it, have larger media outlets give it passing acknowledgement so as to negate its significance (nay even its truth). Make it a non-story.

The difficulty of challenging the administration on this latest revelation is especially striking when literally dozens of "Deep Throats" from the U.S. Intelligence community have bravely stepped into the light of day to blow the whistle on the practice of fitting the intelligence to the policy. As flawed and questionable as we may consider it now, perhaps Felt's cloak-and-dagger strategy is what it takes to captivate the American imagination and mobilize the people, their media watchdogs and their elected representatives to engage in honest inquiry.