Woodward at War

Catchy title, eh? Yeah, it's a play on his books, just in case you don't follow Hollywood Bob. Anyway, the Politico is out with the email exchange, designed to make Woodward look petty for taking things out of context.  But this paragraph deserves scrutiny:

I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest.

So what is this 'forest'?  Simply the notion of a 'balanced approach' to cutting the deficit or perhaps a shiny Utopian redistributive city on the hill?  Sperling et al have admitted they were wrong about the sequester question Woodward broke last weekend, so that paragraph seems to be chastising him for falling off the bandwagon.  Is it possible Woodward is such a purist and took so much offense at being called a traitor to the cause that he trotted right over to the heart of liberal TV and complained on both MSNBC and CNN?  Let's hope so, for the sake of the country, assuming he's correct in his perceptions.


But his perceptions are getting a boost.  Ron Fournier of the National Journal is out with his own tale of cuss word tirades and threats from administration sources so perhaps it's not Woodward who will be regretting things going forward.  A few weeks ago there was the story about the "Puppet Master" and Ed Henry's complaint to the White House press office regarding lack of access to the weekend with Tiger show.  Two Fox News liberals, Kirsten Powers and Juan Williams, also gave strong credence to Woodward's perception.


None of which will resonate very deeply with Joe Average of course, but at the same time it can't be a manufactured distraction either as it certainly isn't helping the 'cause' by gumming up coverage just as the world is supposed to end.  Even if they dig up something shockingly dirty on Woodward, like say a dalliance with a blond spy or GOP operative or thereabouts, it will appear transparently vindictive at this point. 





MORE 2/28/13

In retrospect this article is very illuminating.  One has to think that the reporter's obscurity kept it from becoming a big issue when written (2008) but as time goes by a lot of old stories have gotten new looks.  After reading it there's almost no doubt who's running the puppets in the war on Woodward, and no doubt about why Woodward and others have felt compelled to keep the big guy out of the blame loop.