A Deep Deep Throat?
There has been a lot of talk this week about “Deep Throat,” a.k.a. Mark Felt, and how he is a hero. I was just a young baby when Nixon was president and I grew up hearing about Watergate and how it was such a horrible scandal and a disgrace to the presidency. I remember talk of “break-ins” and “wiretapping” etc. As a teenager I saw the movie about Chuck Colson and how he became a Christian during the time he was convicted and sent to prison for his role in Watergate and later founded Prison Fellowship Ministries. What I did not know until today was that Chuck Colson was sent to prison for giving one FBI file on Daniel Ellsberg to a newspaper reporter. Wait a minute — isn’t that what Mark Felt did? He leaked the contents of FBI files to Woodward and Bernstein of the Washington Post. So if Mark Felt is a hero then why isn’t Chuck Colson?
There is an interesting interview with Chuck Colson which you can read here. He said that Mark Felt did not choose the honorable way to handle the situation he was in. Mark Felt was the number 2 man at the FBI and as such he was sworn to uphold the law. There is a good reason it is against the law to divulge FBI files and Mark Felt knew that and that is why his identity as Deep Throat remained a secret until now. Chuck Colson admits that the way he handled the situation was wrong but so was Mark Felt. Mr. Felt should have gone to the director of the FBI with his concerns about a White House cover-up and he should’ve tried to talk to the president. If neither of those means would have worked then the honorable thing to have done would have been to resign and then make a public statement about his concerns over a White House cover-up.
I think it is wrong for people to think that someone is a hero for breaking the law when there are legal means for them to right a perceived injustice. A person of honor and integrity would choose the right thing to do even if it had a negative consequence for themselves. What Mark Felt did was not heroic — it was criminal.
Pat Buchanan has an interesting and humorous column about “Deep Throat” from an insider’s viewpoint. You can read it here. (Hat tip: La Shawn Barber)
As an aside I want to say that I think it’s amazing the good that God brought out of Watergate through the life of Chuck Colson. Through Prison Fellowship God has changed the lives of millions of men and women around the world. Now that’s deep!
Hi Karen:
Your mother thinks you would enjoy my book, “Coils of the Serpent”, a novel about DNA patterns in Genesis. I like your site, but I will have to disagree with you on the Felt issue. The difference is that Felt was releasing information about illegal activities of the government. As a sworn public servant, it is the duty of any FBI agent to release informtion about illegal activities of the goverment.
On the other hand, Daniel Ellsberg is a reporter. Releasing FBI files about a private citizen, like a reporter is a very bad idea, and is not part of the sworn duties of an official.
Therefore, those were very, very different things. It’s too bad that Felt could not release his information any other way, or he would have obviously been canned, like they have with whistle-blowers of late. We too courageous action and I regard him as a hero.
Hope to chat with you soon.
–Raymond Lutz
P.S. my site, coils of the serpent is not available yet. Please stay tuned.