FBI Agent Mark Felt: Jedi Knight or Sith Lord?

A couple of days ago, Mark Felt revealed to the media that he was the one known as Deep Throat, the unnamed source who helped two Washington Post reporters to bring down a White House coverup of a break-in at the DNC HQ in the Watergate Hotel. More importantly, the media now wants to know your view of Mr. Felt: Hero or Villian? Jedi or Sith? Anakin or Vader?

Fox News has made its decision: they fancy him a lawbreaker, a disgruntled Second-in-Command who retaliated because he was passed over for the top FBI post, a scoundrel who revealed the truth only because he wants money.

But it was well known that the Nixon Administration was trying to sabotage the very investigation that Mr. Felt was leading. So he revealed his secrets to Woodward and Bernstein. I can't imagine Fox News or any other network suddenly surrendering their current "highly placed government sources." I think it is absurd and hypocritical that any news agency would villify Mr. Felt. Given a chance to hurt Democrats, I'm sure Fox News would love to get information from government employees that could embarass the opposition. In a society that values the role of the media as watchdog, we need government employees willing to blow the whistle, if only because our leaders are too willing to sacrifice the public trust for their own personal gain, to turn a blind eye, to make a situation "go away."

In the end, the real villians were those sent off to prison for their role in the Watergate scandal. They started the mess. Felt, Woodward and Bernstein only uncovered their tracks. And if Felt does want a few bucks, so what? Fox News and their commentators will make more money vomiting their polemic of double standards than the 91 year old retired agent will ever see before he dies.

My view: I believe that he did try to act honorably because he saw the Presidential abuse of power, so he was a minor hero. However, his legacy is marred because I believe he was convicted of spying on anti-government protest groups back in the 1970s. To be fair, no one is an angel and no one does anything without some impulse of self-interest. Maybe he did want a bit of revenge. So what? Tell me that Fox News doesn't enjoy bloodying up the Left. Tell me that all the Fox News commentators won't stay for less money when their contracts come up for renewal. Yeah, I didn't think so...