One thing's for sure. Deep Throat, their anonymous source for many of the stories, was instrumental in helping them uncover the Watergate scandal. For years Deep Throat's identity remained a mystery until Mark Felt, former associate director of the FBI, admitted in 2005 that he was, in fact, the parking garage informant. Click here to view a brief newscast about Mark Felt's death a few years ago. While some praise Felt for his courage, others consider him a traitor for leaking classified information to reporters. Click here to see this point of view.
Do you think Deep Throat was a hero? Or was he maybe someone who disliked President Nixon and used Woodward and Bernstein for his own agenda? How do you feel about the value and trustworthiness of anonymous sources?
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I believe Deep Throat was a hero for helping Woodward and Bernstein undercover the truth about Watergate. If there are illegal events happening inside the White House, the people have a right to know. It took a great amount of courage for Deep Throat to come forward and speak the truth. He was risking his job, family, and reputation for doing what he thought was right, which shows a great deal of integrity and honor.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that Deep Throat was a hero for helping Woodward and Bernstein. I think that He did the right thing by helping the journalists. He knew that there was illegal activity among those people that were closest to the president, as well as the president himself. It must have been very difficult to give this information because Deep Throat knew that he was risking everything. Also, I feel that the value of anonymous sources depends on the source itself. And since that source is anonymous, that makes it very hard to trust those sources. Therefore, I think that if an anonymous source is used, the facts given by that source must be double-checked before they are used.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Deep Throat is a hero for helping Woodward and Bernstein. If something shady was going on in the White House I would hope that someone would step forward and say something, not sit back and watch it happen. If something illegal was going it wouldn't matter if you were betraying people that you work with as long as you were doing the right this. Deep throat was a very honorable and brave man for doing what he did. It took a lot of courage.
ReplyDeleteI don't regard Mark Felt as a hero because I am not sure what his motives were; it seems logical that he would be angry at never being appointed absolute head of the FBI and would be vengeful. However, I can't agree that he's a traitor. If he was taking action because he believed Nixon's morals were tarnished, then he had a right to reveal that information to the public so that they could make an honestly educated decision about Nixon's right to be President. The video condemned Felt for giving secrets to a newspaper that hated Nixon rather than just talking with the President or resigning. Mark Felt thought that something was wrong with our government, and knew that it needed change. Simply talking with the President probably would not have done anything (except get him fired), and resigning would have only been the easy way out. Instead, I consider him noble because he took measures to reveal Nixon's corruption to the public instead of letting things be.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to anonymous sources: I think they are fine, but any information that they disclose should be backed up by at least one other source, preferably not another anonymous one.
If Woodward and Berstein were investigating a scandal like this nowadays, it would be harder. I feel this way because now there are so many more ways of keeping that kind of information confidential that it would be harder to know everything that is going on like Woodstein did.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Deep Throat was a hero only because he was one of the only people that would tell of this confidential information that had to be told. I can see how people would think he betrayed his oath with the FBI and confidentiality, but since he was an anonymous source, he had the right to tell this information. Nobody knew who he was so it wouldn't hurt his reputation. If no one knew his identity, then I believe it was a personal desicion to reveal this news about this. It also goes to show that anonymous sources can be reliable.
I understand the argument that Mark Felt breached his duty as a member of the F.B.I., particularly in his role as second in command. However, he was in the position of knowing that the American people and our system of government was being betrayed by the President using his power to commit crime. Felt's resignation certainly wouldn't have stopped it or revealed what Nixon was capable of. I think Deep Throat was a hero to find a way to stop this corruption and the abuse of the highest office in this land. I'm sure he struggled with this, but I think he was very brave. Our system of government depends on the integrity of our President. Felt's breach of his duty to his office was far less than Nixon's breach of his duty to the office of President. Felt's single act revealed many criminal acts and stopped further criminal action.
ReplyDeleteI think anonymous sources are very valuable. Their anonymity allows them to bring forward information that they might not otherwise be able to bring forth and should be revealed. I believe that because they are anonymous they must be checked more thoroughly by the journalists who utilize them.
I think that Mark Felt was a hero because he told the truth, something that people couldn't seem to do during this time. Whether he had his own agenda shouldn't matter if what he said was right and helped bring about justice.
ReplyDeleteI think anonymous sources are valuable to a degree, I would have a hard time trusting someone who couldn't give me a fact as simply as their name. Besides you can't build a story on a ghost, people want to know who is telling stories about their president making the reporters job that much harder.
I believe that Mark Felt was a hero for having the courage to bring forward the information about Nixon's presidency. However, after listening to Charles Colson and Pat Buchanan give their opinions about the situation, I began to understand why they perceived Mark Felt as a traitor. As second in command of the FBI, Felt had the responsibility to serve Nixon faithfully. But by revealing information to Woodward about the scandal, he was compromising the trust Nixon had put in him even if he had good intentions for doing so. Like Colson and Buchanan said, he could have confronted Nixon or resigned from the job if he did not want to be involved in the such injustice. Even so, I still view him as a hero. He may have been able to handle the situation better, but all in all he had the courage to go against the grain risking his reputation and job by doing so.
ReplyDeleteRegarding anonymous sources, I believe that they can be a useful tool in revealing information that would not have discovered otherwise. However, a reporter must be able to trust this source if they are to remain anonymous.
I do not think that Deep Throat was a hero. To be a real hero, he should have resigned from his position at the FBI and been proud to give his name to reporters when he told them all that he knew. But that is not what happened. I do not believe there is anything heroic nor courageous about hiding behind an alias. Because he continued to go to work everyday, allowing and not opposing the FBI's contribution to the government coverup, Mark Felt was a traitor. He was two faced. He let his coworkers believe he was on their side. He took home an FBI paycheck. That is not heroic. Inorder to be called the hero that many revere him as, he should have shown his face to the public and faced his critics and fans. Instead, he gave Woodward and Bernstein half-complete information that led to stories with little credibility that were at first, full of holes. That being said, he did the right thing by giving the reporters any information at all.
ReplyDeleteMark Felt was a hero. Although his motives may have been questionable, he realized that it was his duty as a U.S. citizen to stand up and try to end this intense corruption involving the head of the US government. In the end, that is what it comes down to. I think he could have had a bit more courage when it came to revealing information, but many put in his same position would not even have had the guts to talk to a reporter in the first place. Since I'm sure he was under a lot of pressure, I understand his reasons for not just coming right out and saying what happened. His life could have been in danger.
ReplyDeleteRegarding anonymous sources,I think they can been valuable as long as their validated by at least two other legitimate sources. Anonymous sources can often be important to protect privacy and reduce harassment of the source.
No matter what Mark Felt's incentives for revealing Watergate information were, he should be regarded as a hero. He took great personal risk helping Woodward and Bernstein. I don't think his memory should be tarnished in thinking that he is some anarchist who wanted to tear the U.S. government apart. He helped the country discover that those in the highest positions of power were corrupting the government, whom we need to trust is doing what's best for us.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to whether Woodward and Bernstein's jobs would be easier today, I think it would be a double edged sword. With the internet, finding information is simple as typing a word into Google and getting millions of results. However, that same information is sometimes impossible to be confirmed and credited.
Regarding whether Woodward and Bernstein's job of uncovering dirt would have been more difficult during today's time, I believe it wouldn't be. The government has little room to hide things as dirty as ill-legal fundraising. With computerized records journalists can dig up information allot faster now as opposed to Watergate's time. A president would have greater difficulty hiding foul play.
ReplyDeleteReferring to if Woodward and Bernstein's anonymous source Deep Throat, Mark Felt, was dishonoring his commitment as a member of the FBI or doing what he thought was the right thing, I find that he was doing what someone with morals would do by leaking information. He had been silent a while, but found that the President and his men were getting out of hand. He did what a noble member of this country should do, by ensuring that no one is treated as if they are above the law. We are all citizens of this country and should have to abide by the same laws.
I believe that Mark Felt was a hero despite what many critics to say. What do people like Chuck Colson, who was a corrupt politician, know about having courage and standing up for what's right? Him and people like him have no right to judge Felt's actions. Although they have somewhat of a point in saying that he could have let the public know in a more dignified way than sneaking information to a reporter in a parking garage in the middle of the night, most people put in his position would not be as brave as he was. He did the right thing in letting the public know that most of the people in the highest positions of power in our country were corrupt.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the value and trustworthiness of anonymous sources, I think that they can be of great worth as long as the reporter is careful in what information he or she uses. A piece of information from a named source should hold more value than a piece of information from an anonymous source, however, I believe. While it would be easier for all sources to be named, that is not always possible because the safety of the source is always more important.
Also, I feel that Mark Felt really was a patriot. I see how someone could get the idea that he was a traitor, but if you really think about it, he was more of a patriot because he loved his country enough to want to fix it. If it was not for Mark Felt, most of the information that brought the conspiracy theory to life would not have been known at all and the people involved in it would not have been rightfully punished.
ReplyDeleteI think that people who regard Deep Throat as a traitor need to check their morals and priorities. Regardless of his intentions, deep Throat played an essential role in uncovering a major scandal that was simply unjust and wrong. People were being hurt and power was being abused. What the government did was not by any means morally acceptable, and Deep Throat did the right thing by leading Woodward and Bernstein in the right direction. It was brave to stand up like that, risking his job and his safety. I do not doubt that if he had revealed his identity sooner, his life would have been at risk. I definitely think that he was a hero.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the question asking whether or not Woodward and Bernstein's job would be easier or harder today, I think that it would be easier. Technology would have made many of their tasks simpler, such as sorting through phone books by hand. Also, it would have been easier to obtain evidence proving their theories, because of the permanence of the internet.
I believe that Deep Throat is a patriot. The president is first and foremost a citizen of the United States and needs to be treated as such. Becoming president doesn't automatically get you a "get out jail free card". I think it is ridiculous how the men in Nixon's administration acted in hearing the news. They really need to take a good hard look at themselves and see if they were really doing this for the public good. I do believe that technology would have made their jobs a lot simpler. Their would be easier access to public records and they wouldn't have to spend hours looking through documents in the library. I don't think it would be quite as entertaining to watch :)
ReplyDeleteI think Mark Felt was without a doubt a patriot for revealing the information on Watergate to Woodward and Bernstein! If the president himself wasn't going to show true patriotism by not keeping secrets from his own country and people, then someone had to step up and put the info out there so that Americans could know what they had a right to know!
ReplyDeleteI believe that Deep Throat wasn't a hero. I think he was simply a person not taking the easy way out and doing the right thing in a complicated situation. I don't consider him a traitor because I agree that no one should be above the law. When a person is involved in doing unlawful activities, I believe that he/she should face the consequences of his/her actions whether s/he is a president or just a normal everyday guy/girl.
ReplyDeleteI think anonymous sources can be helpful and trustworthy. But I think they also can be untrustworthy and inaccurate. If you can find enough sources to back up each others stories, I think it is fine to use them. However, you would really need to make sure that each source was telling you correct information that can be proved in other ways, as well.
I believe Deepthroat was a hero. He did waht no other person could do, and helped Woodward and Bernstein unveil the underhandedness of the government.
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