Woodward whining about White House treatment
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Republicans have hated former Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward since he and Carl Bernstein brought down the Nixon Administration and then wrote the book “All the President’s Men,” which told everyone how they did it. They started liking him a bit after he was allowed into the Bush White House to chronicle Bush stuff, and then he gave what I thought a flattering review of the Bush presidency.
Being a left leaner I was skeptical of Woodward’s man-love towards Bush. I remembered how Mike Royko refused to socialize with politicians. He famously refused a White House invitation from the Clinton’s because he knew politicians were experts at charming the pants off people. Seeing how it was his job to beat them up he could not in good conscience take the chance of having his pants charmed off by Bill and Hillary which would lead him to writing nice things about them. I can’t say for sure that Woodward had his pants charmed off by George and Dick, but apparently they weren’t charmed off by anyone in the Obama Administration.
Today Mr. Woodward is being made fun of for claiming he felt “threatened” by an Obama Administration official. Upon release of the “threatening” email from White House aid Gene Sperling, a little guy who stands about 5’5″, the consensus is Woodward wasn’t threatened. In fact it looks like Little Gene is a pretty decent guy who apologized for raising his voice the day before and told him as a friend he would regret reporting the story as he did.
Hardly threatening. Looks like Bob was trying to make himself part of the story, which is strange seeing as how he is a respected journalist and has no need to embellish his reputation at least until now anyway.
Here’s the full exchange between Woodward and Sperling.
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Did anyone ever notice that the other half of the team, Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) rarely makes an appearance? I don’t think he’s dead.
Saw Woodward on Morning Joe trying to backtrack. David Axlerod could have really trashed him as it was Woodwards newspaper that said Wordward felt threatened. Even though on Morning Joe Woodward denied he felt threatened.
Kind of a shame to see things end this way for Woodward. They never go out on top. Willie Mays hung on too long. So are Jeter and ARod. Woodward’s only hope now is a steroid for old reporters.
P.S. The motive for Woodward’s failed gotcha journalism? Well, to recapture the glory days, of course. Time is short to create another “All the President’s Men.” Well, Mr. Woodward, time just ran out. Time to start looking for another Al Capone’s Vault. Geraldo is busy planning a campaign.
(Originally posted in a Facebook thread)
I had a small-scale epiphany at the gym last night. I realized that Woodward attempted a “gotcha” in much the same way Romney attempted a “gotcha” during the presidential debates – when he called out Obama claiming that Obama made no mention of terrorists in relation to Benghazi. Backfire!
While Romney’s error was greater…there was, after all, video of Obama’s announcements from numerous media outlets…Woodward’s was a more common mistake. Us “old folks” tend to forget that we document everything with email, and that email is indelible. One can erase an email from one’s computer, but that email exists on a zillion servers along the way and it also exists on every other computer belonging to someone in the email thread. (And, if need be, erased email can be recovered quite easily unless one formats one’s hard drive.) I also think Woodward never considered the possibility that Sperling would simply release the email to the media.
We must remember that this was supposed to be a two-pronged story about “who started it” (who first suggested sequester?) and was the POTUS “moving the goal posts?” by bringing revenues into the sequester discussion. Woodward was right that Obama first raised the specter of the “unthinkable” as motivation to come to a more reasonable solution. Obama’s bad…I guess. Where Woodward was wrong was on his moving goal posts hypothesis. And Sperling was telling Woodward that he would be sorry for standing by that claim…for obvious reasons. It wasn’t true. No goal posts were moved in the making of Potus policy. But Woodward was hot on the scent, and then he perceived a pretty friendly reminder, that facts matter, as a threat. (“Proceed, Mr. Romney.) Or at least he thought he might be able to spin that fair warning into a threat to add some spice to the story.
Gotcha journalism is tricky. Gotchas have a VERY short shelf life in a competitive, scandal-hungry media. The moving goal posts claim was already out there, and so every other journalist could pick up that trail and follow it to its end. Woodward could easily find himself as just one in a large pack of old bloodhounds with failing sniffers. Since he didn’t have an exclusive on the moving goal posts accusation, he needed “something extra”…something only the master journalist who brought down the Nixon White House could dig up, because only he was good enough to scare White House officials into such behavior…and joy of joys, that something was something in common with the Nixon era…a veiled threat. Woodward dug out a play from the old Nixon playbook and called foul on Sperling–forgetting, of course, that email isn’t like a phone call…one guy’s word against another. In the world of threats, the accuser has the advantage…unless, of course, that threat was alleged to be in writing and the original document is readily available.
Duh! Duh, Mr. Woodward. What the hell were you thinking?