Investigative Vet, Les Whitten, Defends Bob Woodward

By: E&P Staff In the latest round of letters to the editor at The Washington, mainly condemning the paper or its star reporter Bob Woodward or both in the aftermath of the latest twist in the Plame case, came this comment today from the famed Jack Anderson associate Les Whitten, now living in Silve Springs, Md.

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As a former investigative reporter for The Post and co-byliner with investigative columnist Jack Anderson, I am appalled by your coverage of the plight of Bob Woodward and the sorry failure of other reporters to defend him.

In the front-page story about Woodward on Nov. 17, Howard Kurtz, who worked for Jack Anderson and me at one time, found several supposed experts criticizing Woodward, but not one applauding him for tenaciously defending his promise to protect his source. Your paper's Nov. 19 editorial was pusillanimous in its defense of Woodward, and the letters vilifying him, I fear, seem to reflect how the public feels.

I have known Bob Woodward for decades and defended his brilliant reporting all the way back to his early days with a Montgomery County paper, where he revealed educational system skullduggery. Anderson and I competed determinedly with Woodward on Watergate and other stories, and we know his reporting well. His integrity and ironclad devotion to the First Amendment shines in the face of the general gutlessness of many in the press -- reporters and editors alike. This toughness has been inspiring for a generation of young reporters similarly in love with the Constitution.

The Post's handling of the Woodward case is a far cry from the paper I worked for 45 years ago, when I once refused to give even my editor information. I had repeatedly sworn to a source that I would keep it secret. The Post was not happy with it, but there was no retribution.

Jack Anderson and I seldom told each other the names of our sources as one means of keeping the courts off our backs. We depended on our Constitution-minded lawyers to save us.