After four years of work, University of Illinois journalism professor Bill Gaines and his students have uncovered the long-debated identity of Deep Throat. Yeah, I know: lots of people have claimed to know who Deep Throat is. But these guys say they can back up their claims entirely with evidence, that there is no guesswork involved. Gaines and two of his students made their announcement at a press conference yesterday, fingering Washington lawyer Fred Fielding as the Watergate scandal's notorious mole. The project began in 1999, as part of a classroom lesson in the techniques and issues involved in investigative journalism. Students became so interested that it grew from there. I don't know what's cooler: that the mystery is solved ( if indeed it is), or that Gaines--who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for investigative journalism at the Chicago Tribune-- worked so closely and respectfully with students to solve it.

I think it's a little premature to call the mystery "solved". I remember similar declarations about the Kennedy assasination, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and the Jack the Ripper case. Let's let a few knowledgable critics weigh in before we declare a winner.

And let's not forget Kirov.
The linked article was interesting. I look forward to seeing how this plays out.

Well... as a U of I grad, I have to say that I'd be more impressed if Bill Gaines could tell me who the next basketball coach will be.

Go Illini!

In an interview with the Cleveland Plains Dealer today, Carl Bernstein pilloried the Professor and his students. In so doing, Bernstein asserted the class should be disacredited [his words not mine] and that students should not take on projects that seek to identify another reporter's sources. He did not address the veracity of the story.