DEEP THROAT
Name: Deep Throat
Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark
Felt, Sr., the secret source who leaked information about the involvement of U.S.
President Richard Nixon's administration in the first Watergate break-in and
subsequent events that came to be known as the Watergate scandal.
Deep Throat was an important source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein, who together wrote a series of articles on the scandal that
played a decisive role in exposing the misdeeds of the Nixon administration. The
scandal would eventually lead to the resignation of President Nixon as well as
prison terms for White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy,
Egil Krogh, chief counsel Charles Colson, and presidential adviser John
Ehrlichman.
Howard Simons, the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time, dubbed
the secret informant "Deep Throat" as an allusion to the notorious pornographic
movie of the same name. The name was also a play on the journalism term "deep
background," referring to information provided by a secret source that, by
agreement, will not be reported directly. "Deep Throat" came to public attention
when Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President's Men, a book also made into
an Academy Award-winning movie. In the movie, Deep Throat was portrayed by Hal
Holbrook.
For more than 30 years, the identity of Deep Throat was one of the biggest
mysteries of American politics and journalism, the source of much public
curiosity and speculation. Woodward and Bernstein insisted they would not reveal
his identity until he died or consented to have his identity revealed. On May 31,
2005, after W. Mark Felt revealed himself in a Vanity Fair magazine article,
Woodward, Bernstein, and former Post executive editor Ben Bradlee confirmed that
Felt was the source they called "Deep Throat."
Name: Deep Throat
Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to Deputy Director of the FBI William Mark
Felt, Sr., the secret source who leaked information about the involvement of U.S.
President Richard Nixon's administration in the first Watergate break-in and
subsequent events that came to be known as the Watergate scandal.
Deep Throat was an important source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein, who together wrote a series of articles on the scandal that
played a decisive role in exposing the misdeeds of the Nixon administration. The
scandal would eventually lead to the resignation of President Nixon as well as
prison terms for White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy,
Egil Krogh, chief counsel Charles Colson, and presidential adviser John
Ehrlichman.
Howard Simons, the managing editor of the Washington Post at the time, dubbed
the secret informant "Deep Throat" as an allusion to the notorious pornographic
movie of the same name. The name was also a play on the journalism term "deep
background," referring to information provided by a secret source that, by
agreement, will not be reported directly. "Deep Throat" came to public attention
when Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President's Men, a book also made into
an Academy Award-winning movie. In the movie, Deep Throat was portrayed by Hal
Holbrook.
For more than 30 years, the identity of Deep Throat was one of the biggest
mysteries of American politics and journalism, the source of much public
curiosity and speculation. Woodward and Bernstein insisted they would not reveal
his identity until he died or consented to have his identity revealed. On May 31,
2005, after W. Mark Felt revealed himself in a Vanity Fair magazine article,
Woodward, Bernstein, and former Post executive editor Ben Bradlee confirmed that
Felt was the source they called "Deep Throat."