WHO does not know about Bill Kovach? For his 43 years as a writer and journalist for The New York Times, including a stint as its Washington, DC, bureau chief, he is acknowledged as the `guru' of the press world. He has been a curator of the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, which has the world's oldest mid-career program for journalists. He has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

In 2001, Kovach wrote the