Open Thread

December 19th, 2008 10:08 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Deep Throat dead at 95.

W. Mark Felt, who leaked information to reporters under the moniker, "Deep Throat," about the Watergate break-in, died Thursday at the age of 95, sources told CNN...Felt admitted in a 2005 Vanity Fair article he was the Washington Post's source for many of its 400 stories on the Watergate affair during the early 1970s. The Watergate break-in eventually led to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon.

How will history view Felt? Maybe more important, how will history view Watergate? Was it emblematic of ultimate White House corruption, or the moment in American history when journalism changed forever and media members universally became gotcha hounds looking for the next big story that could make them stars instead of reporting the news?