LETTERS

...As a foreign correspondent in Washington for whom the American press is a primary source of information, I find there is a surplus of raw fact and a dearth of theory...

...I must observe, however, that many of the most zealous advocates of analysis in the Washington press corps are also notable for their aversion to hard digging...

...But is there...

...Specific abuses have been laid bare-but also, an intimate picture of the inner workings of the Nixon White House and the minds of the men who wielded great power in the President’s name...

...The Watergate disclosures have been on two levels...

...Peters writes, “Everyone agrees there is a need for more investigative reporters...

...I pointed out four ways they could have gotten it: 1) by following up on the activities of the plumbers, whose existence was published in The New York Times in January, 1972, 2) by knowing junior staffers like Hugh Sloan, who was in a whistle-blowing mood in July, 1972, 3) by exploiting the factional hostilities in the White House and campaign staffs, and 4) by seeking White House scandals from those in other agencies, such as the FBI and the CIA, who were unhappy with the Administration and would have been willing to leak to other reporters the same kind of information they were leaking to the Post’s Woodward and Bernstein...

...If there is to be criticism, it should be directed not at the White House press corps, as it was in Charles Peters’ “Why the White House Press Didn’t Get the Watergate Story” [July-August] , but at the press as a whole for its failure to present a picture of the Nixon presidency into which the facts of the Watergate could fit...

...The press has done a superb job in uncovering the specific abuses but it ought to have been possible for the political commentators, without the benefit of the Watergate disclosures in all their detail, to have revealed the nature of power in the Nixon White House...

...Jenkins’ last point...

...And I do criticize the White House press for having failed to get the Watergate story...

...It was a failure not of investigation, but of analysis...

...I also feel that more investigatory reporting will not help unless it is accompanied by better analysis of what is significant both by the reporter in covering the story and by his editor in making the assignment...

...Letters The Watergate Story That none of the “White House horrors” leaked through political sources is a comment not on the White House press corps, but on the Nixon White House, which apparently contained not one whistleblower...

...PETER JENKINS Washington, D. C. Peter Jenkins is the Washington correspondent for The Manchester Guardian The editor replies: I agree with Mr...