This is the funniest and best “Deep Throat” op-ed I’ve read so far.
Update: Media, media, media. Media on the brain. Join the discussion at Media Slander.
Dan Rather: I’m a victim of my own “shortcomings!”
Update II: The other day Drudge posted viewer totals (currently posted at What’s Happening at CNN) for The O’Reilly Factor and CNN on the night of CNN”s anniversary special :
FOXNEWS O’Reilly Factor – 2,268,000 viewersCNN 25th Anniversary Special — 345,000
The laughter brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time.
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LB, I agree.
What is it with these stupid “pundits” comparing Felt to Linda Tripp? It’s like they’re excusing Reagan because Felt wasn’t a nice guy. The only reason Tripp went public is because she’s an attention whore. One of the reasons Felt didn’t was because they were dealing with some really bad people like G. Gordon Liddy. I wouldn’t put murder past those guys. Tripp wasn’t a nice person, but that doesn’t mean Clinton didn’t deserve what he got.
And I’ll repeat something I’ve said since 1992: Pat Buchanan is insane. I mean, he blames the FBI wiretapping and photographing MLK on Johnson and Kennedy!! In a column about Watergate!!
And of course, by “Reagan”, I meant “Nixon”. It’s easy to confuse one slimeball for the other.
It still not clear if Mark Felt is Bob Woodward’s so-called Deep Throat. It is clear that Woodward is a chronic liar.
Yet compare the MSM of two FBI agents. Mark Felt and Gary Aldrich. Felt was a felon who was attempting to maintain Hoover’s version of the FBI, unaccountable to anybody. Aldrich was an FBI agent who went public. Yet the MSM acts as if Felt were some kind of hero and while condemned Aldrich.
I remember watching “All the President’s Men”. Maybe it was just a movie script and not representing real life, but does anyone else remember all the agonizing over sources and confirming sources. Today all you need for a source is one bozo, even a bozo with a known agenda, who has little or no first hand knowledge of anything. Then you print his speculations.
If anyone has HBO, check the listings for their film, Broken Glass. Hayden Christiansen (sp)plays Stephen Glass, the columnist/reporter who falsified dozens of stories in the 90s. It’s interesting to watch this in contrast to All the Prsident’s Men, and what we see going on today (60 Minutes, Eason Jordan, etc)
Greg,
Taps on King were done before Nixon was President. Jeepers, King was assassinated before Nixon was elected. You might as well have left your error in and blamed Reagan.
>It’s easy to confuse one slimeball for the other.
Hmmm… If that isn’t the pot claiming the kettle is black, what is?
Yes, Liddy was going to kill the second in command at the FBI. Right… Why don’t you call his show and ask him?
>Linda Tripp wasn’t a nice person
And Felt was? Besides, what has that got to do with the price of eggs?
While I wouldn’t quite call Pat Buchanan insane, I do think he is a bit loopy on this. Maybe he forgot Nixon was a crook. Then again, he worshipped at the altar of RMN back in those days. I guess he still has the scent of the incense on him. Still, it was a bit humorous.
La Shawn, I really wonder about some of the commenters on your site. You’re an amazing woman for allowing some of this stuff through!
Thanks for the link. It was a great read.
This is Pat at his finest. Maybe I’m missing something but I find myself not interested in this story at all. I could be missing something important, so if anyone can tell me why the media spotlight on this, I’d really like to know.
James,
I am so with you on this one! Vietnam and Watergate, both hype for the 50+ crowd to just keep droning on and on about their glory days.
Give it up already!!
Where in my comment did I say Nixon taped King? I never said that!!! I would never say that!!!
I was pointing out that the fact that the FBI was taping King had more to do with J. Edgar Hoover’s hatred of King and nothing to do with who was president at the time.
And Pat Buchanan was talking about it in a column about a completely unrelated thing, thus making it a non sequitur
Greg, the point Pat was making is that the FBI was a power unto itself under Hoover and there was a vested interest by many within the ranks to keep it that way.
As loony as Pat may be, even a broken clock is right twice a day and on this point Pat is right.
Right now we see a lot of sturm & drang over Felt and in hindsight his motives/effect on something that happened over 30 years ago. I encourage you to look at this article by Edward Epstein written all the way back in 1974 and assess his claim that the MSM had a major blindspot, with what we know now.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/production/files/epsteinwatergate.html
Thanks for mentioning Pat’s column — it was great. Chuck Colson had some interesting things to say too which you can read at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/122/53.0.html
I didn’t know until today that Chuck Colson went to jail for giving one FBI file to a reporter. No wonder Mark Felt kept it a secret all these years. Check out my blog entry on this article.
That is absolutey amazing! Go Mr. O!
I guess it doesn’t matter that Buchanan was part of the administration that left in disgrace, huh?
DS, not really, but it does matter what Pat thinks and says these days.
Your question is akin to asking if it matters that Dick Morris was a part of the last administration to leave under a cloud.
Dick Morris is sleaze. Homeboy is getting back for being kicked out of the adminstration ‘cuz he was layin’ up with a hooker while talkin’ to the prez.
Thanks something else we agree on, DS.
Never trust angry people. Pat Buchanan is angry as well as often right, Michael Savage is angry as well as occasionally right, Howard Dean is angry and never right, Al Gore is angry as well as stupid. I suspect Mark Felt was and still is angry.
Andy – the broken clock is right twice a day, but due only to the turning of the earth, not to its own efforts. Besides, in some countries as well as zulu time it’s right only once a day. It is all a matter of perspective.
SickAndTired, LOL
“Today all you need for a source is one bozo, even a bozo with a known agenda, who has little or no first hand knowledge of anything. Then you print his speculations.”
Or an opinion and a URL.
Actus, I have no patience for your terse quips today. Why don’t you take a break, go off-line and read a book? – Admin
“Actus, I have no patience for your terse quips today.”
Do you want me to go into more about how they did more than stenography? The used deep throat for 2 things: leads and confirmation. He either told them where to look or told them they were on the right track, and who was telling them the truth. Thats a lot more than stenography. Thats investigation.
Felt is a small player in this mess.
Even smaller is Ted Turner – he puts himself in the same league as Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul 2, and Gorbachev in ending the cold war -
If anything, Felt is responsible for the deaths of 1 million Vietnamese and 2 million cambodians – when the USA abruptly pulled out of Vietnam.
“If anything, Felt is responsible for the deaths of 1 million Vietnamese and 2 million cambodians – when the USA abruptly pulled out of Vietnam.”
In the world outside of wingnut-land, the responsible party is the one who does somethign. I would say the president who was elected by promising (twice) to leave vietnam would be the one that might be responsible for this mess, but that might take responsibility out of the hands of the people who got us into it.
Actus:
“Do you want me to go into more about how they did more than stenography? The used deep throat for 2 things: leads and confirmation. He either told them where to look or told them they were on the right track, and who was telling them the truth. Thats a lot more than stenography. Thats investigation.”
And you know this from: Watching the movie or reading a book by W or B.or you have some other source unavailable to the rest of us and un-named.
You probably also know that George Washington had a mistress too. Saw it on a TV docudrama. Whoops, when called on it the producers said that they had no evidence of Washington having a mistress but it made the story more interesting and Washington more human. Wouldn’t have made much of a movie if it was handed to W and B on a platter now would it? And you think if that had been the case they would have told you. Of course you do.
“And you know this from: Watching the movie or reading a book by W or B.or you have some other source unavailable to the rest of us and un-named.”
Wait, do you really think that’s not how it unfolded?
Actus #27: “In the world outside of wingnut-land, the responsible party is the one who does somethign. I would say the president who was elected by promising (twice) to leave vietnam would be the one that might be responsible for this mess, but that might take responsibility out of the hands of the people who got us into it.“.
That is so obtuse it sounds like sKerry on a good day. Are you coming or going, and how does that tie in with Deep Throat?. Unless I’m mistaken, I think you’re trying to say France is ultimately responsible for the SE Asian misery & deaths
So I thot, I’d turn it around and use Clinton to see if your statement still makes sense:
In the world outside of reality-based land, the responsible party is the one who does something. I would say the president who was elected by promising (twice) to capitalize on the peace dividend (out of Somalia, leave Yugoslavia problems to the EU and stop adventuring around, ie world policeman)) would be the one that might be responsible for this mess, but that might take responsibility out of the hands of the people who got us into it.
Restated thusly, it still sounds like France is responsible but I fail to see the connection to Monicagate.
As for how it really unfolded, I think you need more study time with a timeline chart. Try taking a look at the WG prosecution’s facts of the case.
“Unless I’m mistaken, I think you’re trying to say France is ultimately responsible for the SE Asian misery & deaths”
If so then japan too. But a choice was made by us to go in, knowing it wouldn’t lead to a victory. That some people try to to pin this on woodward and bernstein is just nuts.
“I would say the president who was elected by promising (twice) to capitalize on the peace dividend (out of Somalia, leave Yugoslavia problems to the EU and stop adventuring around, ie world policeman)) would be the one that might be responsible for this mes”
Clinton’s interventionism was deplorable.
Just my own personal opinion but it strikes me that as a sworn official of a Federal Law Enforcement Agency he should have followed established procedures for reporting of wrong-doing through official channels which as always have included going to the congressional committees which oversee or relate to the ares of business. If Mister Felt was of the opinion that he could not approach his superior (Attorney General John Mitchell), he should have at the very least made contact with the commmittee chairman and ranking minority member of either the Senatorial or Representative committees dealing with or having to do with the Department of Justice to explain his concerns or evidence of wrong-doing in accordance with lawful rules and governing regulations.
To circumvent the established procedures and disclose confidential or sensitive material to persons not needing to know such material (unauthorized disclosure) was then and is now a serious breach of trust, not just to the person being circumvented but also to the American people as a whole.
If i, as a member of the Armed Forces, had done such a thing i would have been subject to a courts-martial even if there were mitigating circumstances involved. Such mitigating circumstances, while they may be used in the determination of punishment rendered, do not make the breach of rules and regulations any less unlawful.
There is a right way of doing things and a wrong way of doing things. Mister Felt chose, in my humble opinion, the wrong way of trying to right a wrong. He should not be lauded for his intentions but rather rebuked for his actions. In doing what he did in the manner he did it he became a law-breaker just as much as Mister Nixon was for what he did. We are after all a nation of laws which are and of right ought to be equally applicable to every citizen.
In summary, good intentions coupled with wrong (and unlawful) actions do not make a right situation any more than bad intentions coupled with wrong (and unlawful) actions do.
“To circumvent the established procedures and disclose confidential or sensitive material to persons not needing to know such material (unauthorized disclosure) was then and is now a serious breach of trust, not just to the person being circumvented but also to the American people as a whole.”
More people should have breached the trust of Nixon.
Actus …
poerhaps they should have but doing it ILLEGALLY and UNLAWFULLY makes them no better then Nixon. Dont you get it?
“poerhaps they should have but doing it ILLEGALLY and UNLAWFULLY makes them no better then Nixon. Dont you get it?”
To be no better than nixon they would have to bomb as many cambodians.
sorry actus but that arguement doesnt make any more sense the your first one …. WRONG IS WRONG PERIOD… thats no such thing as “shades of wrong ….
Actus, please understand im not saying that Nixon was right … but to say that one wrong is “despicable” while another wrong (and what Mister Feld did WAS wrong) is “heroic” is absurd to the Nth degree.
The Geek, you should understand that Actus evaluates crimes by the degree of hate.
It’s only logical that he would evaluate Nixon as worse for bombing Cambodians (never mind that many came here to live as Americans, when they should be hating us) than Felt who didn’t kill anyone.
“sorry actus but that arguement doesnt make any more sense the your first one …. WRONG IS WRONG PERIOD… thats no such thing as “shades of wrong …. ”
Hey, tell that to the guy who gets the death penalty and tries to compare himself to another with a speeding ticket. sheesh.
I will tell you one way in which felt was no worse than nixon. He apparently authorized break ins into offices for surveillance himself. AND was convicted of it. What scum huh?
A non-sequitor wrapped in a misconstruction.
Sorry Winny. Had to be said.
so actus you then admit that your “heroic” mister felt is just another crook who tried to be above the law and that makes him “heroic” how?
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