Today's Deep Throats - TheStar.com -

TheStar.com - Today's Deep Throats: "Joseph Darby. Sibel Edmonds. Joseph Wilson.

These are the W. Mark Felts of today.

But while many were hailing the finally identified Deep Throat as a great patriot last week, the new generation of American whistle-blowers who've uncovered government wrongdoing, security breaches and fabrications have faced retaliation and persecution, losing livelihoods and reputations.

They operate in a milieu in which they are often branded unpatriotic for swimming against the tide of the U.S. war on terrorism, relying on media that are dealing with a credibility crisis and reassessing their reliance on the anonymous source, and a White House that is masterful at turning on its accusers.

During a week when The Washington Post was being hailed for protecting a confidential source for 33 years, two prominent American journalists inched closer to jail terms for trying to protect their sources."