Why Now?

I must admit I am a little annoyed at Bob Woodward.

People can think what they will about Deep Throat, Linda Tripp, Bill Clinton, Monica and all of the other famous White House scandals, but right now I’m a little peeved at journalism.

The day the Vanity Fair story broke to the public I read it like millions of other people. After reading it I said, “This doesn’t prove that Mark Felt was Deep Throat.” I thought the VF story did just the opposite actually. I mean it takes an old man obviously suffering from some memory loss and his family who obviously wants some money and a lawyer who is obviously caught up in the “romance” of the era and narrates all of it into a guess that maybe the old man was Deep Throat.

There was no evidence directly linking Felt to the famous dark shadowed man in a parking garage. And only once in the entire article did it quote Felt as admitting to being Deep Throat, and even then it was sketchy. I kept waiting for the author to directly come out and say that Felt admits to everything and wants the world to know. That never happened. Even the mentions of Woodward never implicated Felt as the anonymous source.

So, that morning, I put down the article and laughed and thought there have probably been hundreds of articles written about people claiming to be Deep Throat. All of the burden of proof laid not on Deep Throat himself, but Woodward. I thought to myself, I’d believe it all when Woodward says it. I didn’t see Woodward coming clean to such a hazy, vague article as the one VF printed. After 30 years, it would have to be something much more strong, more concrete to convince Woodward to disclose his source, or so I thought.

Then I was totally floored by Woodward’s admission that Felt was his source. And I have to admit I’m a little disappointed in Woodward’s decision. Woodward has been threatened with prosecution, jail time and death for not disclosing Deep Throat and now a mainstream pop magazine forces him to talk? Maybe I’m just confused.

Today I read Woodward’s side as to how he met Felt and the relationship they formed. Yet, I’m still uncertain as to why Woodward admitted it. To me, and I’m not a journalist, a good journalist never reveals their source, and for 30 years Woodward did just that. Woodward could have easily maintained his off the record attitude and not disclosed Felt, at least until after Felt passed away, which was the original plan. Even after the VF article, which did nothing to convince me of anything, Woodward could have kept silent and left people guessing.

I also understand that by Felt finally coming clean and breaking his vow to never reveal himself, that Woodward was totally released from his word as well. Or was he? I mean, is the VF article really an admission by Felt? I’m not so sure it is.

Woodward, who was actually a registered Illinois Republican at the time of Watergate, led a life and accomplished everything that a young aspiring journalist thrives for, and now I think he’s left this generation of young journalists more confused than ever. Why now?