perfidy

After the first couple days of media self-congratulatory fluffing, I began to think fondly about Rathergate. Everyone on TV seemed to be preening in the reflected glory of a time when the media brought down a president. After Watergate, it was all about the kill, rather than the scoop. But after that faded a bit, almost everything else was even smellier crap. Some right-wing assholes attacked Felt. He was a bad guy because he broke the law, or betrayed secrets, or did something that had adversely affected a Republican in power. Some left wing assholes wrote hagiographies of the former FBI #2 man. This was the hero who allowed the media to kill a presidency. Without Felt/Deep Throat, Bob Woodward would still be a whining nobody. And that would be horrible.

But that’s all bullshit. It seems to me that most people conflate good actions with good intentions, and vice versa. And also the opposite. A sadist might be an excellent surgeon, paid very well for the opportunity to cut people up. (And incidentally cure them of what ails them.) And there have been far, far too many well intentioned people doing horrible things for the best reasons. (e.g., the entire last century.) Felt's case is perhaps a rarity, where he did a good thing for bad reasons. But not so rare as most people think.