
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 27, 1995                   TAG: 9506270082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL DERMODY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
DATELINE: PROVIDENCE, R.I.                                LENGTH: Short

RABBI CLAIMS JOURNALIST WAS DEEP THROAT

A rabbi who stood by President Nixon throughout Watergate said Monday he believes journalist Diane Sawyer was ``Deep Throat,'' the source who helped The Washington Post uncover the scandal.

Sawyer, who was an assistant in the Nixon press office at the time, said through a spokesman the claim was laughable.

And Bob Woodward, the reporter for The Washington Post who has never revealed the identity of his source, said there is no truth to the story.

``For 20 years we've always said that the source `Deep Throat' was a man,'' said Woodward, now an assistant managing editor at the Post. ``There is no evidence that Diane Sawyer in her kind of subsidiary role in the Nixon White House would have that kind of knowledge.''

Rabbi Baruch Korff, 80, said he based his opinion on Sawyer's ``special relationship'' with press secretary Ron Ziegler, and his observation Sawyer had advance knowledge of what was going on at the White House.

The famous source led Woodward and Bernstein to the discovery of financial discrepancies and attempts to cover up criminal activity among the president's top staffers. Nixon resigned Aug. 6, 1974, and died last year.

by CNB