Sleuth on the trail of truth, from Watergate to the Vatican

Missing Persons 21 Carl Bernstein

Three people reportedly got a good laugh last week when an 80-year-old New York rabbi, Baruch Korff, ''revealed'' the identity of Deep Throat, the source who dished the dirt on President Richard Nixon, his Watergate plottings and the subsequent cover-up.

One was the alleged leaker herself, Diane Sawyer, former press aide in the Nixon White House, who these days is an anchor at ABC television. The others were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the journalists who broke the story in the Washington Post more than 20 years ago.

Both Ms Sawyer and Mr Woodward surfaced to deny the rabbi's assertion, noting the only clue ever given about Deep Throat's identity was that it was a man. Nothing was said publicly by Mr Bernstein, however. While Mr Woodward has maintained national prominence on the Post, where he is now assistant managing editor, and as the author of a string of best- selling books on aspects of the government, Mr Bernstein has faded from view.

As portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film of the uncovering of the Watergate scandals, All the President's Men, Mr Bernstein was the scruffy, impetuous half of the sleuthing duo. After the story was over and Nixon had left office, he remained with Mr Woodward to write two books on their experience - All the President's Men and The Final Days. Thereafter, their professional lives diverged. Mr Woodward followed his career path with characteristic doggedness while Mr Bernstein hit a more rocky road as a freelance journalist, with stints notably at Time magazine and ABC.

Among his disasters was one that received unexpected, if anonymous, silver- screen publicity. Few on America's east and west coasts did not know that Heartburn, the 1983 novel by the Hollywood screenwriter Nora Ephron, was a personal account of her whirlwind romance, marriage and subsequent break-up from Mr Bernstein. The book became a hit film of the same name, with Ms Ephron - creator of Sleepless in Seattle - played by Meryl Streep and Mr Bernstein by Jack Nicholson.

Recently, Mr Bernstein has campaigned in writings and speeches against America's "idiot culture", spawned, he argues, by the descent of the media into the valley of innuendo and sex and its abandonment of its central mission of discovering truth. "We are in the process of creating a true idiot culture in America," he railed in an article last autumn. "The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation and contempt for the truth - has overrun real journalism."

He has also written more books. In a blitz of publicity in 1989, he produced Loyalties: A Son's Memoir, about his upbringing in Washington by left- wing parents who attracted the wrath of the FBI in the days of Joseph McCarthy. It received a mixed reception and quickly disappeared.

Today, at 50, Mr Bernstein is in the closing stages of a rather unlikely project: a biography of the Pope. "I am not well-known as a Christian thinker," Mr Bernstein said. "My knowledge of theology is surpassed by my knowledge of dress design."

In researching the book, which he is writing with Marco Politi of La Repubblica, Mr Bernstein has been dividing his time between New York and Rome. The prospects for the work seem uncertain, however. One New York tabloid reported last week it has been "put on hold indefinitely".

One thing we should not expect from Mr Bernstein is a revelation of Deep Throat's identity.

That secret has always been held only by the mysterious source himself and by Mr Woodward. But live long enough and you will find out. Mr Woodward has promised he will identify Deep Throat in 2043 or when the source dies, whichever comes first.

DAVID USBORNE