A lot of other bloggers have been chiming in on the recent revelation that Bob Woodward had spoken with an as-yet-unidentified source in the Valerie Plame matter two years ago and a month prior to the time that Scooter Libby disclosed her identity, though Woodward kept silent about that until yesterday. From everything I’ve read, I think Arianna Huffington’s summary on this is the most comprehensive I’ve seen yet (Will Bunch’s from Atrios is another great one).
It’s hard for me to say something about this that hasn’t been covered already, but I’ll try. I should state at the outset, though, that it is beyond my comprehension how Woodward could have heard of Valerie Plame’s identity in the timeframe he has stated and about which he has testified to Patrick Fitzgerald and not told anyone at the Washington Post about it. It is also reckless and irresponsible for him to deride others investigating the story, especially when he now knew that it was a lot more than “laughable,” and “a junkyard dog.”
The unintended effect of the legendary reporting of Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Nixon White House and the Watergate scandal is that it popularized “gotcha” journalism (though "60 Minutes," having debuted in the late '60s, made this popular on TV first), making the two celebrity reporters akin to gunfighters. When others saw the same possibilities (prodded by news organizations and their corporate benefactors who saw the potential profit), the entire news reporting business started to change. The tactics of the two were fine for anyone “cutting their teeth” in the news business, but it was inconceivable for long-time journalists who had cozy relationships with sources in government who were usually dependable.
As they expertly pieced together the story of the Watergate burglary, Woodward and Bernstein, as part of their journalistic “high wire” act, made some mistakes, the biggest of which was telling managing editor Ben Bradlee that it was OK to report that Hugh Sloan, who was in charge of the finances for the committee to re-elect Nixon in 1972, testified before a grand jury that H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff, controlled the slush fund that financed the burglary and other “dirty tricks.” Also, Bernstein “confirmed” a story by giving the source 10 seconds to deny it, then telling Bradlee the story was good when the source declined to say anything.
Woodward has a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding journalist, though he is most definitely an opportunist as well who, at this point, apparently fails to understand any more that the news, especially the Plame story, must be covered with the same dogged determination that he showed starting out in the business in the ‘70s. He helped give us a legacy of digging tenaciously and reporting as expertly as possible back then, but with his recent actions, he has tried to, in effect, take it back to benefit his own cozy circumstances with his own sources, a practice that he and Bernstein turned on its head some years back.
Woodward’s career may now be irrevocably damaged by his actions (after all, you know that someone always catches up with a “gunfighter” sooner or later). For an author who has been known to, at the very least, “gild the lily” in his books “Veil” (about the CIA of Bill Casey in the ‘80s) and “Wired” (about John Belushi), it is hard to think that this isn’t actually deserved, despite his contributions.
Woodward’s career began with reporting the scandal and legal consequences of the misconduct of one presidential administration. It is beyond ironic that it may now be coming to an end over the foibles of another presidential administration 30 years later.
Update: Arianna has more (via Atrios).
Update: Today's cartoon from Tony Auth in The Philadelphia Inquirer nailed it.
I wonder how many more times Woodward will be appearing on talky, though often informative, programs on C-SPAN to pontificate on "the lessons of Watergate" now?
Update 11/20: John at AmericaBlog buries Woodward and the "ombudsman" at the Washington Post, and deservedly so (hat tip once more to Atrios).
No comments:
Post a Comment