Good investigative journalism reveals what someone has tried to hide or provides new information that otherwise would not be known. The Washington Post coverage of Watergate in the 1970s accomplished both.

For the past three years students in the Investigative Reporting class of the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have attempted to enlighten the public as well by seeking to identify the Post's secret source of information — a man known only as "Deep Throat."

For 30 years Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and their editor, Ben Bradlee, who helped expose the high-level criminal acts that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, have concealed the identity of the man they dubbed "Deep Throat," resulting in one of the most enduring secrets in the history of American journalism.

Woodward declined to discuss Throat with the students, saying "a good investigative reporter protects his sources." Some reporters have done jail time rather than reveal a source who has been promised anonymity, so Woodward's stance seems admirable. Certainly, a good reporter does not utter a word that would lead to the identity of a protected source. That was Woodward's promise to Throat in his and Bernstein's book, "All The President's Men" and the subsequent movie. "I will never quote you, not even as an anonymous source," Woodward promises in the film version.

Having in those words revealed to movie audiences that he had a source, he then appears to violate the agreement by quoting him, telling everyone when and where they met, the information Throat provided, and their means of contact. Woodward has also told us Throat is a man who smokes and drinks Scotch whiskey and served in the executive branch of the federal government. He has added that Throat was a long-time acquaintance before Watergate.

So rather than concealing a source, Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee have promoted a guessing game. Perhaps Throat gave permission for this information to be told. If so, we have all four chuckling up their sleeves, chortling, "We know something you don't know and we're not telling."

Woodward says he will identify Throat after he dies. There are no rules established for this revelation. If he survives Throat, will Woodward make an announcement at the funeral or slip it in the Post obituary? Either way, Woodward would control the telling.

Meanwhile, the secrecy has caused the importance of Throat's contribution to be exaggerated and has unfairly cast suspicion on many people through published accounts based on speculation.

The class sought the facts.