The Source of Whose Troubles?

That case has prompted some of President Bush's detractors -- including Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter, whose magazine carried Felt's confession -- to liken the administration's criticism of the press to that of the Nixon regime's war on journalists. The president and his deputies have been sharply critical of the media at times, most recently in the Newsweek case, even as the White House has continued to make top officials available to reporters on a not-for-attribution basis.

Bill Clinton and his lieutenants also fought bitterly with the press corps over what they saw as the hyping of the Whitewater, Travelgate and Filegate stories, along with a relentless focus on Clinton's personal life and the allegations of Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky and Juanita Broaddrick. At the same time, the Clinton White House was one of the leakiest in modern history. And longtime FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover notoriously tried to peddle to reporters surveillance information about Martin Luther King Jr.'s sexual activities. Whether leaks are good or bad for those in power often depends on who is dishing what. But both administrations paled compared with Nixon's men, who thought nothing of wiretapping reporters to uncover leaks, ordering tax audits of its detractors and, in the case of The Washington Post Co., threatening to yank its valuable television licenses.

One other effect of Watergate and the movie "All the President's Men" is that journalism became a more lucrative endeavor than it had been in the old "Front Page" days. While few became as wealthy as Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the advent of television contracts, book deals and movie rights boosted many practitioners into the upper middle class -- where critics say they are less in touch with the daily concerns of many readers and viewers. The lure of instant stardom also may have prompted the fabrications of Janet Cooke -- the Post reporter who conjured up an 8-year-old heroin addict in 1980 -- and later Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley. In one string of Times stories, Blair quoted unnamed law enforcement officials about the case of the Washington snipers -- sources it now appears he invented, along with many others. Despite the mythology, The Post didn't force Richard Nixon from office -- there were also two special prosecutors, a determined judge, bipartisan House and Senate committees, the belated honesty of John Dean and those infamous White House tapes.

Perhaps a better lesson for the press is the way that Woodward and Bernstein pored over phone lists and knocked on doors late at night, the kind of shoe leather reporting that seems less fashionable in an age of cable, blogs, Podcasts and the like. There is still a burning need for original reporting amid the cacophony of analysis, commentary and celebrity news.

Felt, now 91, was conflicted enough about his role to lie about it for 33 years, in part out of concern for what the FBI would think about a top official who spilled secrets. But it has taken about that long for source-addicted journalists to engage in some serious soul-searching about whether they have pushed too hard and gone too far in an effort to recapture some of that ancient Watergate glory.

Anonymous Attacks

Radar, the new magazine launched by former Talk editor Maer Roshan, has no qualms about unnamed sources. TV "insiders" are quoted anonymously in trashing top anchors and correspondents with such comments as "She's so dumb she can't even read off a teleprompter"; "He's a sociopath"; and "Everything has to be scripted for her." One woman said to report by "flashing her cleavage." Not exactly courageous journalism.

Brownstein's Disclosure

Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein told readers last week that he didn't intend to treat John McCain any differently, despite the fact that Brownstein's wife, former CNN producer Eileen McMenamin, has become the Arizona senator's communications director. "I am confident that her new job will not affect my judgments," he wrote.

Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus says the couple is in Paris and "we decided not to stop the honeymoon to have the argument" about "where the right boundaries are" for Brownstein. "We're all agreed that Ron can't cover McCain per se," but McManus sees no problem with Brownstein writing a story "if McCain's name comes into it in a minor way. . . . We think Ron is the best political writer in the country and don't think it'd serve the nation or our readers to take him off politics."

Plagiarism Watch

The Cartersville, Ga., Daily Tribune News has fired Associate Managing Editor Chris Cecil after Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. told the paper that Cecil had lifted parts of eight of his pieces since March. The paper said it was "embarrassed, furious and simply dumbfounded."