CORE OF THE CORPS

The best Washington newspaper reporters* stand out like star shells:

Arthur Krock, 64, who was right-hand man to New York World Publisher Joseph Pulitzer before going to Washington in 1932 to boss the New York Times bureau, the capital's biggest newspaper bureau (23 staffers). Krock almost never attends press conferences, prefers to depend instead on his personal contacts and his staffers' legs. As Washington's No. 1 correspondent, Krock's advice is often sought by Washington brass--from the President down. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes and two exclusive presidential interviews (Franklin Roosevelt in 1937, Harry Truman in 1950). Like all Timesmen, Krock has an advantage over most of his competitors, in that the Times is the most-favored paper for Government handouts, leaks and policy "trial balloons."

James ("Scotty") Reston, 41, the Times's "diplomatic correspondent," and a 1944 Pulitzer Prizewinner (national reporting), has come to be rated tops in his field by combining first-rate State Department and embassy sources with graceless but clear writing.

Bert Andrews, 50, has been head of the New York Herald Tribune Washington bureau since 1941. His 14-man bureau puts less stress than the Times on analysis, more faith in legwork. Convivial and popular, Andrews likes to do much of the digging himself, won a 1947 Pulitzer Prize for exposing the star-chamber loyalty proceedings in the State Department, later helped prod the House Un-American Activities Committee into the investigations that trapped Alger Hiss. Andrews turned the whole staff loose to help his able assistant, Jack Steele, track down and expose the five-percenters' scandals.

Walter Lippmann, 62, onetime editor of the New York World, is the dean of the pundits, has written his column, "Today and Tomorrow," for 20 years (syndication: 190 papers). Aloof and independent politically, Lippmann is probably the most widely quoted despite his pedantic, but-on-the-other-hand style, has just taken a long leave from column writing to work on his 19th book.

Raymond ("Pete") Brandt, 55, a onetime Rhodes scholar who has covered Washington for 27 years, bosses the five-man St. Louis Post-Dispatch bureau. Pete Brandt leaves most spot news coverage to the wire services, saves his staff for interpretive stories and special assignments, thinks nothing of taking six columns to analyze a U.S. Supreme Court decision himself. His goal: "three-dimensional reporting," i.e., see, hear and understand.

Paul Leach, 60, of the Chicago Daily News, sparks the coverage for the four Knight newspapers (Detroit Free Press, Akron Beacon Journal, Chicago Daily News, Miami Herald), and recently caught the Air Force contradicting itself on the relative merits of the Russian MIG and the American F-86.

Paul Ward, 46, of the Baltimore Sun, has sources and knowledge of international affairs equal to Timesman Reston's, but his woolly writing is a cut below. Ward has pretty much a free hand on what he wants to cover, won a Pulitzer Prize for his postwar series on Russia.

Mark Watson, 64, also of the Sun, has been in & out of Washington for more than 30 years as an expert on the armed services and weapons (it won him a 1944 Pulitzer Prize). He is rated by his peers top military writer in Washington.

Edward T. Folliard, 52, has been the Washington Post's crack all-round reporter for years. For his series exposing the anti-Catholic, anti-Negro Columbians in Atlanta, he won a Pulitzer Prize.

Drew Pearson, 53, has the largest circulation (over 600 papers) of any Washington columnist, thanks partly to his reputation for risking libel. Pearson gets many of his tips from disgruntled Congressmen or bureaucrats out to knife a policy or an opponent; fellow newsmen often slip him a risky story their own papers won't print. Pearson's stories are slapdash and often inaccurate, but his Quaker righteousness, bulldog tenacity and one-man campaigns (one sent Parnell Thomas to jail) have helped keep politicos and bureaucrats honest.

Columnist Doris Fleeson, fortyish, witty and lively, learned the columning trade while teamed up with ex-husband John O'Donnell of the New York Daily News, now goes it alone in 72 papers. Her "interpretive articles," as she calls them, make informative reading, thanks to her well-used pipelines to congressional offices and the Democratic National Committee. She attends no off-the-rec-ord conferences, yet frequently knows what the Administration is up to before many of its brasshats.

Joseph, 40, and Stewart Alsop, 37, put out their own special mixture, a blending of political and economic punditry, forecasts and crusades, e.g., their defense of Dean Acheson and attacks on Louis Johnson while Defense Secretary. Yaleman Stewart is scholarly, quiet; Harvardman Joe, aggressive, facile, gregarious, steers the team. The brothers soak up information incessantly at interviews (upwards of 40 a week), at Joe's lavish parties in his cinder-block-and-glass house in Georgetown, or by legwork around the globe. (Each spends at least part of the year abroad.)

*Excluding correspondents for weeklies and news magazines: TIME and LIFE have 21 in Washington.

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