Speaking of hagiography...

This is really the guy. Really.

There has been a great deal of exuberance in the mainstream media over the past couple of days, thanks to the confirmation that W. Mark Felt, the "former No. 2 man at the FBI" (as a phrase liberally sprinkled throughout the coverage affirms) was the confidential Watergate source known as "Deep Throat."

I understand how this is a story, and how the historical interest justifies fairly high-profile coverage. But I just kept getting the sense, watching the very many encomia (sorry, a personal favorite), that the media was taking the time to pat itself on the back. You could just see the various anchors saying to themselves, "Man, we did good that time, didn't we!" See this story, for instance (and note the odd accompanying picture).

I have no lingering resentment about Watergate; and not having been aware of it at the time, I was not infected with the institutional mistrust it seems to have engendered. But neither do I feel the need to exult at this revelation, as if we are reliving Keith Tkachuk's goal for Boston University in the 1991 National Championships, the one that sent the game into overtime. It fills in a gap, sure, but no more. The story is over, and has been over for decades. Indeed, it appears that if anyone chose to look, there might be an interesting story around this guy's motives: he was passed over for the position of FBI Director after the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and only after this did he start peddling confidential information to reporters.

I suppose I should let the media have its moment. This may be for the best--if they begin to realize that this iconic story took place long before some of the well-coiffed newsreaders of today were even conceived, they may come to the conclusion that they actually have something to aspire to: the long road back to trustworthiness.