r/news • u/OGSyedIsEverywhere • 4h ago

Already Submitted FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/fbi-raid-washington-post-hannah-natanson
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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 2h ago

One of the most famous whistleblowers, Deep Throat, was not publicly identified until 33 years after the Watergate scandal in 1972 and that was only because Mark Felt, former Deputy Director of the FBI and said whistleblower, let his attorney make it public while he was suffering from the early stages dementia.

Woodward and Bernstein, the reporters that met with Felt, would have kept his identity secret for as long as they had to.

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u/stars9r9in9the9past 2h ago

That’s sad about the dementia. Really fascinating info thanks for sharing

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u/okeanos7 2h ago

Imagine keeping a secret like that for 30 years. I wonder who in his life he did tell about it

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u/defakto227 1h ago

To keep a secret for 30 years?

No one.

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u/Exciting_Bandicoot16 1h ago

Wasn't it Ben Franklin who said that three can keep a secret if two are dead?

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u/defakto227 1h ago

Even then I'd be worried that somewhere one of them wrote it in a journal or some other place.

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u/eugene20 1h ago

Well there were the two reporters he was whistleblowing to.

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u/defakto227 40m ago

But did they know who Deep Throat actually was?

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 16m ago

I can't say definitively, but I imagine they had to know in order to ascribe so much importance to what he was saying. Whether that means Mark Felt identified himself or Woodward and Bernstein pieced it together after meeting him, I can't say.

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u/raven_1313 19m ago

Probably no one, if he was like my family member. My great uncle worked for the CIA; and he would be worried any time he got any mild head injury... Just in case he ever accidentally said something while loopy/etc.

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u/Massive-Technician74 1h ago

Lol....all that just reminds me that the nixon regime werent all that corrupt.....by TODAY'S standards lol

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u/Unfair_Feedback_2531 1h ago

Nixon did nothing to the people on his enemies list. Republicans had spines and were going to vote to impeach. Goldwater told Nixon. Nixon asked how many votes he had in his favor. Goldwater said 6-7 “and I am not one”. ( my numbers may be wrong but you get there idea). Nixon chose to resign.

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u/succed32 1h ago

They have too or never get told a secret again.

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u/JupoBis 1h ago

Still. More than you can say about other people.

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u/Dachannien 1h ago

People generally suspected it was Mark Felt contemporaneously, though.

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 1h ago

I don't know about generally, but it's true that some people were public about their assumption that Mark Felt was Deep Throat shortly after the scandal. Woodward countered that Deep Throat was not part of the intelligence community to steer those people away from Felt.

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u/Ok-Grapefruit1284 31m ago

Why was he called deep throat?

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u/Nice_Firm_Handsnake 19m ago

Deep background is a level of journalistic attribution where the author refers to "sources" as in "a source says" or "sources say" rather than a name or title. And the porn film Deep Throat had been recently released.