Did two of America's most famous journalists, the reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal, break a 33-year-old vow to W. Mark Felt never to reveal his identity until after the former FBI assistant director was dead?
MORRISVILLE, Pa. (PRWEB) Aug. 3, 2005 - Did Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and the Washington Post break journalisms highest sacrament, a promise never to reveal the identity of a secret source, when they confirmed that 91-year-old former FBI assistant director W. Mark Felt was Deep Throat?
Media relations consultant Richard Lavinthal, a former newspaper and wire service reporter, and spokesman for federal and state prosecutors, poses that question in an OpEd commentary appearing August 1st in the Sunday Times of Trenton (New Jersey).
Lavinthal spoke with San Francisco attorney John OConnor, who represents Felt and the Felt family, and authored, Im The Guy They Call Deep Throat, which appeared in Vanity Fair magazine on May 31.
OConnor revealed that neither Woodward, Bernstein nor the Post sought to be released from the vow never to identify Felt until his death. It may seem foolish when a source outs himself in a magazine article, Lavinthal says, but the owner of secrecy not the reporter controls whether to release the journalist from his pledge. In this case, Felt may have no memory of Watergate, further muddying the water, Lavinthal said. But not remembering is not a waiver, he argues.
In Journalism and Omerta: Watergate Style, Lavinthal notes that Woodward and Bernstein originally refused to confirm Felts identity when the Vanity Fair article hit the newsstands, then later decided to confirm that Felt was Deep Throat.
A reporter's vow to protect the identity of a secret source is the most important sacrament in journalism, the key that can unlock a story lurking below the surface. It's vital for investigative journalism, but it can extract a heavy toll on the reporter who offers it. Journalism's version of omerta can lead to jail, where Judith Miller of The New York Times now sits, Lavinthal wrote.