The Last Bother: Knowing The Facts   

Just ask the relevant people what might have been said.

The big book of the fall season no doubt will be "The Last Brother," by Joe McGinniss, a kind of fictional "Mother Goose," but without that classic's historical authenticity. It is a splendidly exemplary piece of work for every journalist.

"Joe McGinniss," of course, is a nom de plume used by Oliver North. North, as you probably know, is the illegitimate son of John F. Kennedy. Oliver Stone reveals this in a forthcoming film, and you know his reputation for relentless pursuit of the truth, which makes him a major artist in this era of enormous moral authority in American film. For further corroboration, you can take it from Spike Lee, who would never tell a lie about a public figure.

Simon & Schuster, in fact, has an important book in the works about how JFK fathered Oliver North in a tryst with Pamela North while Mr. North was out solving those mysteries. The book captures the JFK-North relationship through the intimate dialogue between them, which was written by Hedda Hopper. It was based, Simon & Schuster tells us in a pre-publication note, upon extensive research by Ms. Hopper and her "knowledge of the relevant people."

I don't claim to know all the facts about these things personally, but I'm as sure of them as if I had heard them directly from Ronald Reagan.

The McGinniss book is a compelling example of how multimedia stars, television networks and respected book publishers can establish high standards and just the right tone of integrity in the life of our country.

?ho knows whether it is true, but William Manchester said McGinniss lifted 187 passages from his book "The Death of a President." Then Doris Kearns Goodwin claimed that McGinniss improperly quoted from her sources in "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys" and also cited a letter she had used without crediting her. McGinniss, of course, does not deny that he made up quotes throughout his book.

If even half of this is true, it certainly justifies Simon & Schuster boss Carolyn K. Reidy's statement to the New York Times that McGinniss had "used his imagination" and inferred "a thought process or perhaps even a conversation" in "certain scenes." She also pointed out that he did not want to use "150 pages of footnotes," and he certainly can't be blamed for that.

An even more solid defense by Ms. Reidy, once the word got out that McGinniss had made up whole conversations and maybe even entire interplanetary expeditions in the book, was her revelation that NBC already was making it into a miniseries.

What could be better validation of this book's verities than the fact that a network was turning it into a miniseries?

Here now, for your clip file of exemplary professional behavior, is Simon & Schuster's note distributed with a pre-publication excerpt, its really great idea of how to enable the reader to determine what was true and what the author made up:

"The events and circumstances described in 'The Last Brother" have been extensively researched by the author. Some thoughts and dialogue attributed to figures in the narrative were created by the author, based on such research and his knowledge of the relevant people, places and events."

Keep this. It can serve as your defense every time you just want to make something up. l