The right sources.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Book Review

I agree with those who have been praising Bob Woodward's new book Plan of Attack. It is a good--a very good--book, full of fascinating inside dope about the Bush administration and its obsession with Iraq. I worry, however, about the lesson that other journalists will draw from it.

It is based, as have been most of Woodward's book after All the President's Men, on interviews with the big shots. Because of the reputation Woodward has earned over 30 years, these people are now afraid not to talk to him. And because they know other big shots will be talking to him, they are afraid to conceal anything that one of the others might have revealed. An unknown young reporter can't start this way. The big shots will seldom talk to him, and even when they do, they're going to think they can get away with pulling the wool over his eyes. That's why...