

Mark Salter, embittered McCain aide with "writer's block," wrote "O" - JacobAldridge
http://www.salon.com/books/political_books/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/27/mark_salter_o_book

======
JacobAldridge
I know politics is generally off-topic on HN, but I see this as an exploration
at attempts to remain anonymous given the reality of modern society. I think
three great examples of this over time are actually representative _of_ the
times.

Mark Salter (2011) seems mostly to have been revealed by social connections -
for example, the publisher's rep on _O_ was the same person as for Salter's
other, ghost-written works - and by a 24-hour news system that has space to
publicise campaign staff, and even follow them up post-campaign to their
writing den in Maine.

This is by no means as impressive an exposition as the discovery that Joe
Klein (1990s) wrote _Primary Colours_ \- that was achieved through textual
analysis and computing power - to a degree that wouldn't have been possible by
a university team on an unfunded project even ten years earlier.

And of course there's the greatest tale of Washington anonymity - Deep Throat,
aka Mark Felt (1970s). He got away with it for more than thirty years, until
his family convinced him and Woodward / Bernstein to open up just before
Felt's death. The only clues were from _All The Presidents Men_ and the
information revealed (though mostly it was double-checked) in newspaper
articles, and even then the book included some red herrings.

Given today's newspaper is no longer tomorrow's fish-wrap (at least, the
electronic version), I doubt it would be that easy today.

