A Study in Emasculation

Published on Saturday, June 4, 2005 by the Guardian/UK
A Study in Emasculation
In the US media, a mission to explain has been replaced by a mission to avoid
by Henry Porter

Our name for him was Wig. And for two years only a handful of people at Vanity Fair's office in New York knew what or who Wig was. It turned out to be another code name for Deep Throat, wittily, or perhaps tastelessly, given to Mark Felt by Bob Woodward during the Watergate investigations - undoubtedly the highest moment of journalistic inquiry ever on either side of the Atlantic.
Woodward was gracious when he learned that Vanity Fair had scooped him with his own story, as indeed was Carl Bernstein when editor Graydon Carter called his friend to make a slightly rueful apology on Wednesday morning. Actually it's a testament to Woodward and Bernstein's integrity that Vanity Fair was able to capture the unicorn and reveal the identity of this mythic creature. This was a serious secret that still has the power to stir considerable passions in America, as we saw in the reaction of Pat Buchanan, who instantly branded Felt