Unmasking ‘Deep Throat’ UI journalism professor Bill Gaines and students in his investigative reporting classes have done extensive research in an effort to identify “Deep Throat,” the anonymous source who helped expose the Watergate scandal. Their efforts are to be the centerpiece of a “Dateline” special on NBC June 14 that recognizes the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. In conjunction with the program, Gaines is providing a “Finder’s Guide” on the Internet that will provide a list of “most likely” candidates, all of whom worked in the White House, Gaines said.
For 30 years, its been the subject of speculation: Who was “Deep Throat,” the anonymous source who helped two Washington Post reporters expose the Watergate scandal?
For six semesters, its also been the subject of a class project in Journalism 291: Investigative Reporting for Print and Broadcast. Under the direction of Bill Gaines, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize as an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, students have plowed through files, tracked down former White House staffers, and compiled a detailed database in an effort to identify the elusive Watergate source. They do not have an ironclad answer, and perhaps never will, says Gaines, the Knight Professor of Journalism. But through a time-consuming process of elimination, with minimal resources, they have narrowed the list to seven candidates, and to four that Gaines refers to as favorites.
On June 14 a few days before the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in NBCs “Dateline” is planning to broadcast a segment about the class and its project. In producing the segment, “Dateline” spent significant time on campus in the spring, Gaines said, focusing on the work of the eight undergraduates in that semester’s class. In connection with the “Dateline” airing, Gaines will post on the Web a “Finders Guide to Deep Throat,” which he describes as a progress report on the results of the project so far.
Several media reports about the project have suggested he would nail down the identity of “Deep Throat,” but Gaines stresses that is not the case. “I dont believe you can (nail it down),” he said. “Even if we did, nobody would know if it was true.” As with guesses made by others, the person named would likely just deny it, and the reporter who relied on the anonymous source, Bob Woodward, likely would not comment, Gaines said. Instead, the “Finders Guide” will provide a list of “most likely” candidates, all of whom worked in the White House, Gaines said. Among those, he may have one that tops his own personal list “the person I think most likely to be Deep Throat on the basis of the information that we have, the process that weve used.”
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