No. Yes. No.
They could have code named their source “Kim” if they wanted to. The only essential thing about a code name is it disguise the source. It is that simple.
I have to agree that it does seem odd for a major newspaper to choose the name “Deep Throat” for public use. It seems far more appropriate as a reference for the Post to use at the office. How is it that they went ahead with this peculiar choice when the reference was so seedy and inappropriate for mainstream consumption? History often boggles the mind, truly.
Am I the only one here who is old enough to remember when people were more easygoing about that kind of thing? Sometimes I miss the seventies 
No one outside of the staff of The Washington Post knew of either the name “Deep Throat” or the fact that there was a source on deep background who was responsible for much of the genesis of Woodward and Bernstein’s reporting until years later. That’s what deep background is. A deep background source is never mentioned in newspaper articles about a subject. He’s not even mentioned in the “A source in the executive branch tells us . . .” sense. A deep background source tells some facts to a reporter and then the reporter has to find someone else (and usually several other people) who will confirm those facts. The existence of a deep background source is thus never mentioned to people outside of the newspaper staff (and it’s usually confined to the reporter and his editor). The existence of Deep Throat was not known until Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President’s Men. By that time, Nixon had resigned and thus the story was over. So of course no one had any reaction to the name “Deep Throat” at the time that the newspaper articles appeared. No one knew that there was a deep background source.
Because Deep Throat the movie had gone mainstream; that’s the point we’re trying to make to you young’uns. Time and Newsweek and The New York Times did articles about it. I think even Bob Hope was doing jokes about it.
Like Manduck says above . . .
How about the millions of people who bought All the President’s Men when it was published in June 1974*, while the scandal was still being investigated and Nixon was still in office? From Chapter 4:
- Playboy magazine published the first of several excerpts in early April 1974.
Gees, that’s what Wendell said: "The existence of Deep Throat was not known until Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President’s Men. "
Oops, but he also says Nixon had resigned by then…
He also wrote, “The existence of Deep Throat was not known until Woodward and Bernstein wrote All the President’s Men. By that time, Nixon had resigned and thus the story was over. So of course no one had any reaction to the name “Deep Throat” at the time that the newspaper articles appeared. No one knew that there was a deep background source.”
And of course that is incorrect. All the President’s Men was published months before Nixon resigned, and only 22 months after the break-in.
She was born with her Uvula and Vulva in switched positions.
I’m sorry. You’re right that All the President’s Men was published several months before Nixon resigned. Still, as I said, the story was essentially over by that point. Everybody knew that Nixon’s career was over by that time. It’s irrelevant to my main point which was that at the time that the articles by Woodward and Bernstein appeared in The Washington Post, there was no indication that there was a deep background source and hence no mention of the name “Deep Throat.”
We historians prefer the term " climaxed ".
What ???
Cartooniverse
Actually, she was born with her clitoris and her uvula in swapped positions. The “plot” revolved around the fact that she could not climax unless she was being…uh… penetrated that far down in her pharynx.
A much better premise than its poor imitator, *Chatterbox*. 
Cagey Drifter writes:
> How is it that they went ahead with this peculiar choice when the reference
> was so seedy and inappropriate for mainstream consumption?
When the name “Deep Throat” become publicly known when the book All the President’s Men was published, the public took it the reference as the joke that it was intended to be. Just how sensitive do you think the American public is? Do you think that when they heard that a deep background source was referred to by Woodward and Bernstein and their editors by the name “Deep Throat,” they said, “Oh, no, they call their sources by the names of dirty movies! That must mean that they are in favorite of sexual orgies. Let’s go burn down the editorial offices of The Washington Post.”
Yes.