Anchors gush over heroism of 'Deep Throat'

In nearly every journalism school in America, students are taught the legend of Watergate, of how heroic reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein used the heroic anonymous source "Deep Throat" to defend the constitutional order. This legend, peddled commercially as the book and movie deals that produced All The President's Men, is almost never taught as how to take down a Republican President for political gain and personal profit.

A few years ago, the impeachment of Bill Clinton was routinely savaged by liberal reporters as a saga with "no heroes." (See box.) But Tuesday's Vanity Fair scoop naming Deep Throat as former FBI second banana Mark Felt made some TV news veterans giddy with the notion of heroism:

Dan Rather. On the CBS Evening News, reporter Jim Axelrod allowed former Richard Nixon aide Chuck Colson to say Felt was wrong to leak to the press, the rebuttal came from the Old Media. "I think he performed a public service," said disgraced anchorman Dan Rather. "Widespread criminal conspiracy led by the President of the United States. I, for one, think it would have succeeded had it not been for Woodward, Bernstein, Bradlee, and the source to whom they promised anonymity."