EcoblogIT

Deep Throat outs himself

W Mark Felt who was second-in-command at the FBI at the time of the Watergate scandal has told Vanity Fair that he was Deep Throat. The Guardian reports on the article here (registration required). I wonder whether traditional journalists would be used by someone in a similar position now or whether a blogger would get the story. Recently, Apple won the first round of their case against Nick Ciarelli of ThinkSecret.com who broke the news of the impending release of the iPod in 2001 and the Mac mini this year before official announcements. This is being billed by some as a test case as to whether bloggers are journalists and therefore have the same rights to confidentaility of sources as Woodward and Bernstein perhaps did. The Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled in Apple's favour, saying that reporters who published "stolen property" weren't entitled to protections. No mention of any distinction between bloggers and reporters was made and so my take is that this isn't a blogger/journalist issue at all.