The Deal Behind Deep Throat

Still think it's nobility and pride that drove the Felt family to spill the beans on Daddy's Deep Throat identity? Try this passage from the Guardian (UK, resistration required):

Vanity Fair's scoop revelation that a former FBI official was the Watergate "Deep Throat" was the result of a two-year negotiation process involving 15 editors, a San Francisco lawyer, and a dummy issue of the glossy magazine.

The Felt family attorney, John O'Connor, first wanted money from Vanity Fair for the story. Turned down, he sought money for book rights. Turned down again, he returned to Vanity Fair and the now famous 15-editor process.

The Guardian story concludes:

And, as the lawyer makes clear in his story, the source's family was seeking to profit from the revelation and therefore had an incentive to pressure Mr Felt into going public.

The badly scooped WashPost predictably saw it differently, editorializing that Felt is a hero:

He revealed his role in part because of his family's belief that he deserves to be honored for his actions while he is alive.

The honor is surely deserved. Mr. Felt, now 91, was a dedicated servant of the FBI ... .

I looked up "honor" in my Webster's and "big payoff for the greedy kids" isn't included as one of the definitions.

(links h/t media bistro)