# What did deep throat do **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289 "2005-05-31T23:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/41 "2005-06-01T14:52:43Z")
Didn’t someone in Slate or [Salon.com](http://Salon.com) write an article last year that pegged Felt as Deep Throat, but the site dropped the specific identification when he threatened to sue? And I thought there was an analysis a few years back that pointed at someone unspecified in the FBI based on the fact that the big story Woodward wrote immediately prior to this one involved the FBI, so he would already have made contacts there. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/42 "2005-06-01T15:10:07Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#): > > Now that his identity is public record, what did he do to bring down the Nixon white house? Woodward, Bernstein, and Deep Throat didn’t bring down the Nixon White House. Judges and prosecutors did–in particular, Judge John T. Sirica and special prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski. Most of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting consisted of leaks of information that was being discovered as a result of the concurrent legal investigations, and would have been revealed in court anyway in due course. The _Post_ investigations did help to mobilize public opinion, and they make a dramatic and colorful story, well told in the book and the movie. Deep Throat’s involvement added an irresistible air of mystery. But the heavy lifting in Watergate was done the old-fashioned way, by prosecutors subpoenaing documents and tapes and hauling witness after witness for questioning under oath before a grand jury. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/43 "2005-06-01T15:15:09Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Didn’t someone in Slate or [Salon.com](http://Salon.com) write an article last year that pegged Felt as Deep Throat, but the site dropped the specific identification when he threatened to sue? And I thought there was an analysis a few years back that pointed at someone unspecified in the FBI based on the fact that the big story Woodward wrote immediately prior to this one involved the FBI, so he would already have made contacts there. Chatterbox (Timothy Noah) at Slate has been writing deep throat speculation for a while, and Felt was definitely one of his top picks. Never heard anything about a possible lawsuit. They put up an index page of past deep throat stories, mostly Tim’s, pretty quickly when the reveal broke yesterday: [http://slate.msn.com/id/2119876/](http://slate.msn.com/id/2119876/) ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/44 "2005-06-01T15:31:40Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > Woodward, Bernstein, and Deep Throat didn’t bring down the Nixon White House. Judges and prosecutors did–in particular, Judge John T. Sirica and special prosecutors Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski. Oh, I don’t think the Watergate investigation would have had near the juice it did without daily dispatches from the front. When you’re investigating the head of state, it’s tough to do without public opinion on your side. Moreover, I think the coverage of Watergate got under Nixon’s skin in a way that the investiagtion would not have in itself. Nixon clearly was not a guy who reacted well when he’d had his nose bloodied, and the Saturday Night Massacre was the result, which itself was a (the?) prime motivator for Congress to take impeachment seriously. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/45 "2005-06-01T19:30:58Z")
Nitpick: Backspace is ^H, not H^. It’s the computer’s way of rendering “control H”. If you held down the control key and hit H, you’d get a backspace. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/46 "2005-06-01T20:50:42Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Back in the days before the Web, some Telnet and newsreader clients would not accept the backspace key. So you’d type your input, realize you had a typo, backspace to the typo and correct it, and then hit enter. Your input line looked fine, with the correction in place, but when the line would post to the screen so the others on the channel could read it, you’d see the original line with the typo, H^ for every tim eyou hit the backspace key, and then the stuff you typed afterwards. > > E.g., suppose I typed “Hi Bib!” then noticed the typo. I’d backspace, correct it, and retype so my input line read: “Hi Bob!” But when I hit enter, “Hi Bib!H^H^H^ob!” would appear on the screen. Correct! ( **Chronos** , duly noted.) And I like the way it gives the impression of someone coughing or loudly clearing their throat, which is the purpose it serves nowadays. > [@](#): > > Now, that symbol is used as a joke as **Ree^H^H^H^Rilchiam** did to pretend that the writer of the post typed one thing and then changed it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/47 "2005-06-01T21:12:30Z")
FUC^H^H^HEep! –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/48 "2005-06-03T21:59:57Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > What I don’t understand is… in what context would you be willing to give hints, but not give out actual clear info? I mean, this is not a case where he’s a kindergarten teacher and needs his students to blossom by learning to think for themselves… No, but it WAS a case where he was #2 in the FBI, and I’m sure he was mightily anxious about ratting out a world leader in espionage, underhandedness and sneakery. > [@MaxTheVool](#): > > That makes very little sense to me. Suppse he’d said “G. Gordon Liddy is dirty as hell” and, from the White House perspective, Woodward and Bernstein suddenly start investigating G. Gordon Liddy. How does that lead back to any specific person any more than if he said “follow the money”, and they started following the money? Very specific people know very specific things about very specific people. If you shot Woodward up with truth serum and interrogated him, and asked, “Did W. Mark Felt ever tell you that G. Gordon Liddy was dirty as hell?”, giving him the ability to truthfully say “No” is a big deal. It doesn’t sound like much, but in secrecy small differences like this matter. You just don’t go around tossing big federal secrets about, man! He was #2 at the FBI! This is not something you take lightly when you’re in that kind of job. > [@MaxTheVool](#): > > that’s still just as much treason No it’s not. If two accused secret-sellers were brought to juries, and it were proven that one had sold specific weapon design plans and the other had said something vague like “there’s big dealings underfoot in the mountains of Wyoming”, and the jury had to acquit one, which would they choose? > [@MaxTheVool](#): > > but much less useful Wrong again. Felt knew that Woodward and Bernstein were incredibly bright journalists and (1) could find the gritty details out themselves and (2) would probably like it better that way. **Jeff Lichtman** has explained it well. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289/49 "2005-06-04T04:36:46Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Deep throat was a hint giver. But he didn’t break the case open. > A letter from McCord to Judge Sirica naming names is what opened the floodgates. It also helped when that witness mentioned in passing that Nixon had recorded everything. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-deep-throat-do/306289.md?page=2)