Deepthroating the Washingtonienne

So Deepthroat was FBI honcho Mark Felt. Bit of an anti-climax, no? I was hoping it would be Pat Buchanan or Dianne Sawyer, though Woodward and Bernstein had long ago confirmed that their shadowy source was indeed a man, and neither Sawyer nor Buchanan qualify on that count.

I’m pissed at this story. Why? Because it was poorly produced. Felt should have gone to “Woodstein” with his intention to go public, then let the Washington Post string out the annoucement with a series of teasers, culminating with a prime-time TV exclusive. Everyone would have made a lot more money (which is apparently the reason Felt decided to go public) and we all would have been happily caught up in the hype. I feel cheated out of some good old fashioned hype. I could have blogged about this for days leading up to the actual announcement! I feel so, so cheated.

Now, instead of story of the year, Felt’s confession will be off the front pages by the end of the week, a sad and meaningless postscript to perhaps the greatest journalism story of all time.

Meanwhile, remember everyone’s favourite ingler, Jessica Cutler the “Washingtonienne“? Well, her book is finally out. It’s a standard roman-a-clef, which means its fictionalized content is nonetheless reflective of Cutler’s actual sordid sex life. If some generous soul out there wishes to express his or her gratitude for my many years of entertaining blogging, feel free to buy me a copy.

(See, when Cutler’s identity was revealed, that was a great media moment. Felt’s announcement, while historically important, was a feeble and empty PR event in comparison.)

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