Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone, with a few of your letters. Mostly, you wrote in, in response to our interview with University of Illinois journalism professor William Gaines. With his students, he launched a four-year investigation into the identity of Watergate's Deep Throat, using clues dropped by Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein.
He concluded that their source was former White House counsel Fred Fielding. Carl Nash was one of several listeners who disagreed. He says the source was the late Charles Lichtenstein, a former Nixon staffer. He had access, a connection to Woodward, and experience in undercover work.
Nash writes, "The fact that various hints have been given concerning Deep Throat - that he smoked and drank heavily, for example, I take to be attempts to keep Lichtenstein's identity secret. He drank lightly and did not smoke. All of the other candidates mentioned were too high profile or had family or other connections who would have known that he was sneaking out late at night to meet Woodward. And most of them had more to lose by outing Nixon on Watergate than to win."
Maybe, but Bob Woodward said he would reveal his source after he died. If Lichtenstein is the man, we should know by now. Constance Hall of Chicago has another suggestion. (Quote)
"Years ago I read Deborah Davis's remarkable profile of Katharine Graham in which she made the case that a White House aide with a basement office and regular duties for top officials including Henry Kissinger was perfectly positioned to be Deep Throat. His name: Richard Ober. And Davis claimed Ober has never denied it."
Meanwhile, Laurie Spiegel of the New York metro area wrote in with some political phraseology that she would rather the media not use. Among them, she says that she'd like to replace "climate change" with global warming. She would change "tax relief" to revenue reduction. And she says "Social Security reform" - and by the way, we'll be dealing with that in a minute - should be retired in favor of Social Security modification.
Keep those letters coming to wnyc.org and don't forget to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name. [MUSIC]