Deep Throat

Re " 'Deep Throat' Revealed," June 1: How refreshing to learn that "Deep Throat" was motivated by neither ideology nor principle, but rather revenge and angst at being passed over for a promotion. To learn that he was subsequently convicted of authorizing his own illegal break-ins is even more precious. Paul Carter Long Beach Re "Disgust and Admiration at FBI," June 2: I am amazed at the discussion about whether W. Mark Felt is a hero or a traitor. To me it comes down to: Should he be loyal to a crooked administration or loyal to his country?

The disclosure that W. Mark Felt, formerly the No. 2 official at the FBI, was Bob Woodward's famous Watergate source, "Deep Throat," has received a flurry of media attention normally reserved for such world-shattering events as a tsunami, the death of a pope or a runaway bride. Some perspective is in order. Admittedly, the unmasking of the whistle-blower who helped Woodward and Carl Bernstein, of the Washington Post, assemble key pieces of the Watergate puzzle is not without importance.

Having come of age in the '70s, I am certainly familiar with "Deep Throat" as a cultural phenomenon: its status as the epitome of "porno chic," the way it made Linda Lovelace a household name, Bob Woodward's appropriation of the title as the code name for his secret Watergate source. With "Deep Throat" the prodigious profit-making machine, however, I was unfamiliar until recently.

CBS News, in a documentary Wednesday night on the Watergate affair, speculated that L. Patrick Gray, former acting director of the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the key source for the Washington Post in the affair. Deep Throat's identity has been a mystery since the character emerged in the book, "All the President's Men," written by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about the Watergate break-in. Gray, who declined to be interviewed for the documentary, has denied being Deep Throat.

Richard Nixon is dead, Katharine Graham is dead, even Linda Lovelace is dead. But Deep Throat? Still alive, and still a secret more than a quarter-century after his guidance helped Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein break the Watergate story and unseat a president. John Dean says he knows Deep Throat's identity. And the former White House counsel, whose testimony against Nixon was a key moment in the saga, says he will reveal all in "The Deep Throat Brief."

The daughter of the ex-FBI official who was revealed last week as "Deep Throat" has acknowledged that money played a role in the decision to go public. W. Mark Felt, 91, was the mysterious source used by Washington Post reporters in their investigation into the Watergate break-in, which led to the resignation of President Nixon.

Re "Watergate's 'Deep Throat' Is Revealed," June 1: I am glad that W. Mark Felt, second in command at the FBI in the early 1970s, finally came forward and revealed that he was the enigmatic "Deep Throat," perhaps the greatest political mystery of our generation. Although he kept his secret because he thought what he did was somehow dishonorable, in reality he did a brave and courageous thing and should be viewed as a genuine hero. The Nixon administration was involved in a plethora of unethical, shady, mean-spirited and downright illegal acts.

It was almost inevitable. So strong was listener response at KCRW-FM (89.9) to last summer's airing of the "25th Anniversary Watergate Special"--a five-hour National Public Radio adaptation of a Discovery Channel/BBC series, hosted and narrated by Daniel Schorr--that station officials say they had to rebroadcast it. Only this time, instead of a Monday-Friday spread, it's going to be a seven-hour marathon from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.