Celebrating Whistle-blowers

Thursday, June 2, 2 005

It was a big day for we who have toiled in the vinyards of newspapers. "Deep Throat" has come out of hiding in his 91st year -- beset with Alzheimer's that takes away a person's grip on reality.Undoubtedly not long for this world, at least as the man he was.

Has his surfacing been soon enough for him to bathe in the status of hero by most in our business?. The smile on his face seemed to reflect the relief from coming out as the mystery man who helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein unravel the Watergate affair.

I hope his memory is still active enough to enjoy the recognition he is receiving for his courage an honesty -- once dangerously imperiling his position as No. 2 man in the FBI.

He had served not as a leaker of secrets, but as sort of a fact checker to keep the Washington Post duo confident they were on the trail of the Richard Nixon administration, who had convinced themselves that people in their high places were immune from the limits the Constition but on everyone in this democracy.

I liked Woodward and Bernstein's definition of journalism on Larry King tonight as seeking the truth as much as is obtainable .

I am writing about Daniel Ellsberg, leaker 34 years ago of the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War. He was in a somewhat similar position to Mark Felt as Dan put his conscience ahead of his disclosing government secrets and therefor his loyalty to the RAND Corporation, where I worked for 19 years. In my view, while his act enraged the Nixon Administration and the military, and thus blew a hole in RAND'S pockets for a long time, it undoubtedly helped change opinion throughout the country about the war. It probably saved many American soldiers' lives and far more of the innocent victims in Vietnam by shortening the war.

Migod, have I named my blog well! As I have through most of my career in journalism, I make so many typos that only the computer and its spell-check can save me where city editors mostly encountered them before

Arthritis in my finger increases my frailty.And my computer keyboard, full of keys I seldom use, rises my frustration to froth proportions. As my screen saver used to say, "Frankly, I did better on an old Underwood."

City Editor Chuck Chappel of the old L.A. Daily praised and put me down in one breath one day, by characterizing me as one of his best reporters -- and the worst typist.

I have taken this escape route from writing anymore tonight.Hail to Mark Felt, Woodward and Bernstein, Dan Ellsberg and the late Chuck Chappel as my heroes.

Amen.