United States

24 November 2005

Et tu, Woodward?

What the heck's going on here? Bob Woodward -- the Bob Woodward -- is now making news instead of breaking it. The Washington Post's bigfoot reporter has made a cameo appearance as The Deposed in the ever-expanding Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame-Bob Novak-Scooter Libby-Judith Miller Follies written, directed and prosecuted by Pat Fitzgerald. Ziegfield never had such a cast, and now it includes an icon of...

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23 November 2005

Woodward debacle shows need for accountability

Bob Woodward's journalism career has come a long way - from obscure police reporter to star of the Washington Post and one of the country's most recognizable journalists. Now the Watergate reporter whose stories brought down President Richard M. Nixon is tangled in a web of Washington journalists involved with the Bush administration's leak of Valerie Plame's secret identity as a CIA operative...

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23 November 2005

Don't forget a file in the cake

What the heck's going on? Bob Woodward - the Bob Woodward - is now making news instead of breaking it. The Washington Post's bigfoot reporter has made a cameo appearance as The Deposed in the ever-expanding Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame-Bob Novak-Scooter Libby-Judith Miller Follies written, directed and prosecuted by Pat Fitzgerald. Ziegfield never had such a cast, and now it includes an icon of...

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23 November 2005

Former Ombudsman Criticizes Woodward Arrangement

NEW YORK Former Washington Post Ombudsman Geneva Overholser criticized her former newspaper, saying it should either sever its ties with Bob Woodward or require the legendary Watergate scribe to work solely for the paper, not pen his best-selling books on the side. "It isn't an arrangement that can really work at the Post," said Overholser, who served as ombudsman from 1995 to 1998 and later as a...

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23 November 2005

The Woodward Cover-Up

What did Len Downie know, and when did he know it? And more important, why didn't he do anything about it when he knew? On Oct. 24, if not earlier, the Washington Post editor learned that his star reporter Bob "Mr. Run Amok" Woodward had held back key information about the CIA leak scandal for two years. Yet Downie himself withheld that bombshell from his readers until Nov. 16 � a delay of more...

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23 November 2005

Journalists have another option -- report the misinformation effort

You make some important and often overlooked points in your column on confidential sources. I've been in an extended argument with FAIR -- whose work I generally applaud -- on similar issues. FAIR has issued a statement approving of confidentiality protection for whistleblower informants but not for informants spreading government propaganda. In reply, I've used arguments much like yours. We...

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22 November 2005

Wilson, at NU, asks newspaper to probe reporter's role in leak

Joseph C. Wilson IV, husband of Valerie Plame Wilson, called on The Washington Post last night to investigate the conduct of Bob Woodward, the investigative reporter, in the leaking of Plame Wilson's name to the news media. Woodward admitted last week that a Bush administration official had disclosed Plame Wilson's identity to him more than two years ago. He did not alert his editors or officials...

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22 November 2005

Woodward Talks of Admission, Apology

Bob Woodward said yesterday that he notified his editor at The Washington Post of his involvement in the CIA leak case because he realized he "was going to be dragged into this." In an interview with CNN's Larry King, Woodward, a Post assistant managing editor and best-selling author, detailed the events that led him to apologize to Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. for not notifying him earlier...

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22 November 2005

Woodward's Version

Bob Woodward, in a phone conversation of nearly an hour and a half on Sunday, said: "People think I'm hiding something. But what am I hiding? . . . Anyone who looks through that book [his Plan of Attack, published in April 2004], it expands their knowledge. It's the best account of how we went to war with Iraq." He cited a number of examples of tensions and clashes over war policy that were first...

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22 November 2005

Woodward: 'I was trying to avoid being subpoenaed'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward said Monday he kept his conversation with a Bush administration official about the identity of a CIA operative secret for two years because "I was trying to avoid being subpoenaed." Woodward said on CNN's "Larry King Live" he also didn't tell his boss, executive editor Leonard Downie Jr., about the source, a decision he called a mistake....

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