If the term “Deep Throat” had not been used, one might logically ask whether the public would have been as intrigued in trying to identify the news source. To me it is interesting that the term “Deep Throat” never was used by Woodward and Bernstein in their Washington Post stories, but it became a key term in their book and in the movie, “All the President’s Men.” About that time, there also was a pornographic movie entitled “Deep Throat,” and I often wonder whether the sexy name was applied to sell the book and movie or to be a code. Al Haig because he was known to smoke cigarettes and drink scotch whiskey, part of the description given the anonymous news source by the two Washington Post reporters.įelt now says he feels he was a hero, but those of us on the White House staff felt that whoever it was, the Watergate source was disloyal and unethical. Woodward and Bernstein wrote a letter to Landesman last year calling the characterization “demonstrably false” and saying Felt was only one of “several dozen” sources they used in their reporting.Almost everyone who had a senior position in the White House was given the “Deep Throat” label. But the movie’s title - which describes Felt as “the” man who brought down the White House - has been controversial. Nixon resigned in 1974 because of public scrutiny over his involvement in the Watergate scandal. “I consider the question to be outside the bounds of our official investigation, so if you prefer, I’ll withdraw the question,” Pottinger told Felt, who asked that the question be withdrawn.ĭebatable: Mark Felt brought down the White House. In reality, Pottinger then told the stenographer to stop taking notes and told Felt that, because he was under oath, he was required to answer honestly. The film cuts off before Felt answers the question. Listening to this over lunch, I probably went white as well. One man raised his hand and asked, ‘Were you?’įelt looked so stunned, Pottinger said, he seemed to go white. “It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”Īfter Pottinger and the other Justice lawyers were finished with their interrogation, Pottinger, as was the custom, asked if any grand jurors, who are ordinary citizens, had questions for the witness. “That car coming down the road from up above, down the driveway, coming into relief into our world was such a shocking moment,” she said, recalling the day her parents arrived while she sat in a field holding her infant son. Though she was not an activist for a group actively monitored by the agency, such as the Weather Underground, Joan Felt confirms that she was a “flower child” and really did move to a commune, where her parents tracked her down after three years of being out of touch. Around the same time, Felt’s daughter became involved in a counterculture movement that stood in opposition to the FBI. The Watergate investigation wasn’t the only drama going on in Felt’s life during the period the film covers. “Watergate is the story of the system, and when the system broke down, one person had to create a new mechanism.”įact: Mark Felt and his wife traveled to a commune to find their daughter. “Watergate is not the story of two reporters,” he told TIME. Mark Felt writer and director Peter Landesman said he made the decision not to focus on the better known reporting work of Woodward and Bernstein so that he could step back from the prevailing Watergate narrative.
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