It struck us as a mite odd* that the Deep Throat story was broken by Vanity Fair. Here was a major scoop, one which would have been snapped up by any magazine. Apparently the Felts had wanted Vanity Fair to "give the story the stature they sought" - as in, sandwiched between glossy photos of hot young Hollywood starlets? It kind of didn't add up. Would Felt have chosen Vanity Fair? Would he have even read it?

Well, in addition to stature, the Felt family wanted money. Today's NYT offers a breakdown of the Felt family's bid to sell the story, first to People and then to the always-dignified ReganBooks, meeting with Woodward sometime in between, which obviously led nowhere.

Another weird point: as Richard Bradley asked on HuffPo, who the hell was John D. O'Connor? It seemed an odd dual role, to go from legal adviser to agent, morphing into author along the way (how was the $10,000 Vanity Fare fee allocated, I wonder?).

Bradley notes the following: (1) The VF piece is way short on actual quotes from Felt (except for the money quote, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat"); (2) There is at least some evidence that the 91-year old Felt's mind ain't what it used to be; and (3) It's odd (and to my mind, kind of sad) that Felt would choose this route instead of going with his WaPo confidantes, still holding to their oath after all these years.

Joe Hagan and Katharine Rosman of the WSJ also examine O'Connor, tracing his attempts to reveal/sell the story, painting him as a bit of an opportunist who started by offering legal expertise and eventually being "permitted by family members" to waive attorney-client privilege and actually write the story himself. Family sign-off or not, the whole thing definitely suggests a conflict of interest.

Well, in any case, Felt seems happy about it now, and there's no reason that he should be the only player who doesn't benefit from his legacy. But for a story defined by codes of honor the whole way through, it seems like the wrong ending.

*And of course we totally knew it was Mark Felt all along.