Everyone's excited about Deep Throat! The folks at the New York Observer must have worked like maniacs yesterday to get their coverage ready for today's paper, with Tom Scocca giving some backstory to how the Vanity Fair article was brokered (and it sounds like VF got a pretty good deal; the Felt camp had wanted dignity and money (not necessarily in that order), but VF only had to cough up its standard rate plus the priceless assurance to the Felt camp that "it would give the story the stature they sought"). Meanwhile, at the Washington Post, staffers had to figure it out by themselves as they watched The Post being scooped on their scoop (the VF fact-checkers deliberately skipped the Post, it seems). Meanwhile, original leaker Jacob Bernstein suddenly wasn't so talkative, refusing the clamoring media seeking his inner-sanctum commentary: "I've turned down Good Morning America, the Daily News, Fox News. I've turned them all down." (Who knows, Jacob may change his mind and share his secret. Apparently that can happen.)

But the real excitement come from over at Slate, where Timothy Noah is near-apoplectic with joy at having been proven right through years of chasing the secret identity of Deep Throat (not surprisingly, all sorts of people "knew all along"). Even now he can't stop chasing, obsessively going back over his conclusions and evidence, mad at Woodward & Bernstein for red herrings they may have cast, mad at himself for not going to summer camp with Jacob Bernstein. Expect more from Noah Thursday once Bob Woodward publishes the definitive denoument in WaPo. Meanwhile, the lack of Deep Throat innuendoes has truly been surprising, though these efforts were appreciated. James Wolcott, your restraint is superhuman.

Deep Throat, Antihero [Slate]
Washington Post Is Copping A Felt On Deep Throat [NYO]
Still Deep [NYO]
Disclosure by Magazine Catches Post by Surprise [NYT]
Conflicted And Mum For Decades [WaPo]
Slate's Deep Throat archive [Slate]
Deep Throat round-up [MediaBistro Morning Newsfeed]