Woodward Ho!

Yes, that’s a pun… and a pretty good one, actually, to describe the new military-industrial-journomedia complex that has arisen since we permitted defense contractors to own broadcast networks, and Whoreporate America realized that reporting on the government was so much more effort than having access to high government officials and simply printing their prepared press releases as fact without further review.
Which takes us to this story in Time by one Viveca (no relation) Novak, about WaPo Assistant Managing Editor and reputed investigative journalist Bob Woodward’s interaction with “his source” (which we can all guess was probably actually more than one source, i.e., Karl, Scooter and quite possibly Dick Dastardly himself). Look carefully at what the piece says: “the Source” gave explicit permission for Woodward to talk to the Special Prosecutor… but not to publish the story (I suppose, not to publish attribution of the story to “The Source”).
Note Woodward’s slimy self-serving interpretation: this meant he couldn’t talk to anyone (including, seemingly, his own company’s higher management and attorneys) or, of course, the Special Prosecutor, about a matter of national import in which he himself was in up to his tushy. So, even though Woodward had relevant information on one of the most important criminal investigations of the day, even though his employer was presumably under subpoena for the very information Woodward was holding back because “The Source” wouldn’t wet poor Wobert pubwish it (boo hoo)… Woodward stood mute…
As our good buddy John Emerson suggests, we need an actual major liberal newspaper in this country.
Because if Judy Miller and Bob Woodward have just taught us, “even the liberal” New York Times and Washington Post… don’t qualify.
But the hell with a liberal newspaper. We’ll just take an honest news source. [Those of you who come here for such an honest news source are already ahead of the curve, but at 138 hits a day or thereabouts, and many of those from Google inquiries about sex with dogs, our “circulation”
is a little less than we would be hoping for a “national” newspaper or media source.]
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. But after his giving the current President fellatio to rival that received by the previous President, we all should have known better than to expect anything approaching honesty (or even “non-criminality”) from Mr. Woodward. Fool us once…

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