By Dallin Lykins
A startling confession Tuesday has finally answered the almost 30-year mystery of ?Deep Throat,? the key government official who leaked important information during the 1970s Watergate investigation.
The story trickled out during the day, beginning with an article published in Vanity Fair magazine, in which John D. O?Connor, the family attorney for W. Mark Felt, stated that Felt confessed in 2002 to being the famous White House official responsible for leaking criminal information. Late in the afternoon, Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein confirmed that the former FBI official was indeed ?Deep Throat.?
?I?m the guy they used to call ?Deep Throat,?? Felt told O?Connor, according to the magazine article.
In 1972 Felt named names and revealed secret information about the Watergate break-in as a secret source with the Washington Post reporters. At the time, Felt was second-in-command at the FBI. Many investigators accused Felt because the information leaked mirrored the FBI?s investigation.
Though denying similar allegations in 1999, Felt finally confessed his role and admitted shame for his actions, O?Connor said.
?I don?t think was anything to be proud of,? Felt reportedly told his son. ?You not leak information to anyone.?
Felt?s family members convinced him to come forward, because they wanted the country to see him as a brave man.
? is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice,? grandson Nick Jones read in a family statement Tuesday. ?We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well.?
John Hughes, Editor-in-Chief of the Desert Morning News said he never thought ?Deep Throat? would come forward.
?I was surprised he came public after all this time,? he said.
Initially, neither Woodward nor Bernstein would confirm Felt?s identity Tuesday as their secret source, holding strong to their promise of not revealing the leak until he or she died. When Felt revealed his secret himself, the reporter team confirmed the information.
In an issued statement, Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein said, 'W. Mark Felt was ''Deep Throat'' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate.'
The two reporters gained fame in the early 1970s for breaking the story, but would not reveal the secret source who provided them with the valuable information of the White House?s connection to the illegal activity.
Hughes, who worked as a foreign correspondent for the The Christian Science Monitor at the time, said many reporters admired the two men for breaking the story and for making the secrets of the government known.
?Most of us were pretty impressed,? he said. ?They had to make a decision as to whether or not to use that source, and they went forward with it.?
The Watergate investigation began when police found five intruders breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in June of 1972. Investigators discovered the intruders were attempting to adjust bugging devices they had installed a few months before.
After digging for leads, Woodward and Bernstein started receiving information from a source they refused to reveal. The source?s information started an investigation and a story that unraveled a web of conspiracy and cover-ups.
The investigation resulted in President Richard Nixon?s resignation from the White House and the indictment of over 40 government officials.
Following the presidential fallout, rumors spread throughout the country as to the identity of the source Post editors referred to as ?Deep Throat.? Investigators and journalists accused a number of government officials. Magazines like Newsweek and Rolling Stone accused Utah Sen. Bob Bennett of planning the break-in and later leaking the information.
Hughes said the journalist-government relationship worsened after Watergate.
?Journalists became more cynical of government,? he said. ?We should be skeptical, but not cynical. It?s a little sad, actually.?
Along with the mystery and the allegations, the Watergate scandal also changed the way many people viewed journalism in general, said Deseret Morning News reporter Lee Davidson.
?It was an amazing story, and it made a lot of people get interested in journalism,? he said.
While doing great investigating, Woodward and Bernstein did not, however, provide journalists with the perfect model for writing stories, Davidson said.
?You don?t normally have to rely on just one source, and you should not have to rely on a secret source,? he said.
Davidson said reporters should only use secret sources in extreme cases. Recent problems like reporters fabricating stories and major magazines printing incorrect information have caused many Americans to distrust the media.
Hughes said journalists must be careful when dealing with sources who wish to remain unknown and must be clear as to what the source?s motives may be.
?You have to ask yourself, ?Why is he telling me this,?? he said. ?Then you have to make a moral decision whether or not the source should be used. They obviously had to make that decision.?