Press etiquette
Sir: Spectator (November I) suggests that my colleague Dave Greenaway breached press etiquette by quoting a "senior American official" and, in the next paragraph, observing that Kissinger "often insists" on precisely that identification. Not so. The "senior official" on a Kissinger trip has been so frequently identified as Kissinger that everyone in Washington press, readers and Secretary of State are thoroughly aware of the transparent mask. If Kissinger did not want to be identified, there are a dozen different ways he could have covered himself ("background," "deep background," "a US source," -informed sources," "officials," etc). Spectator got trapped, I'm afraid, in the intricacies of Washington's mysterious occidental ways.
Bernard D. Nossiter The Washington Post, New Zealand House, 80 Haymarket, London SW1
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