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Would all the reporters who savaged Bob Woodward now like to apologize?

Would all the reporters who savaged Bob Woodward now like to apologize?

Woodward was prescient about the Obama administration’s treatment of the press

How long ago is seems now.

Bob Woodward complained in February about heavy handed administration treatment after Woodward reported that Obama was untruthful about who came up with the idea of the Sequester:

The reaction from the left media in particular was savagery, belittling Woodward, making is seem as if the words used by the White House “you will regret” were blown out of proportion by a self-aggrandizing Woodward:


Kevin Drum at Mother Jones exclaimed, Seriously, WTF Is Up With Bob Woodward?. Daily Kos chimed in In which the Obama administration threatened to send Bob Woodward to a gulag for thought crimes.

Gawker accused Woodward of being just another Fox News hack, Woodward All, ‘The President’s Mean’: Watergate Journalist Accuses White House of ‘Threat,’ Runs to Fox, running this gif:

Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine demanded to know, What the Hell Happened to Bob Woodward?

Newsweek/Daily Beast ran this column, Bob Woodward’s Dark Days with the following sub-title:

Woodward’s recent flap reveals a grotesquely swollen ego fed by 40 years of hero worship. In Newsweek, Max Holland asks: why is this man an American icon?

But is wasn’t just the openly left media. A columnist at The Boston Globe noted how the media in general rallied around Obama to demonize Woodward:

Obama’s supporters have responded by getting tougher — on Woodward. When Woodward complained to Politico about a hostile e-mail from White House economic adviser Gene Sperling, the administration released the e-mail trail and made Woodward look petty. Suddenly, the knives were out even beyond the administration: A flurry of journalistic takedowns suggested that perhaps those 17 bestsellers weren’t as definitive as people thought. Or, as a writer who re-reported his one non-Washington book, about John Belushi, declared in Slate, Woodward rarely muffed a provable fact, but “like a funhouse mirror, Woodward’s prose distorts what it purports to reflect.”

It was all the rage to bash Woodward, as the dozens of links at Memeorandum reflect.

Woodward turned out to be prescient, the wisdom of his years and experience informed him as to the dangerous nature of the Obama administration’s treatment of the press.

Woodward had a reporter’s nose for scandalous tendencies in an administration.

The media who so rudely savaged Woodward owe him an apology in light of the Obama administration’s secret review of AP phone records.

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Comments

Still, I can’t stop laughing at the idea these corrupt infantile clowns will personally grow past their narcissistic selves in a few weeks.

Obama just had his ‘anti-Rush Limbaugh’ (“Everything’s his fault!”) summit with the group of usual Hollywood Obamatards (Harvey Weinstein, Justin Timberlake, etc.) — the press will soon fall back into line, or they won’t be invited to Hollywood parties at the White House.

We have a very sick man in the White House, and tiny little people running the Fourth Estate. We also have a very sick man in vice presidency. Third in line in succession, we have an even tinier person.

What a state of affairs. We can’t blame ourselves for Obama or Biden, but we have no where to turn in the blame for allowing John Boehner to remain in the GOP Speaker position. An election of a backstabbing coward — likely being blackmailed into compliance — has consequences.

No, they would not like to apologize.

They would like you to be quiet and not bring up this unseemly matter (which is, after all, Bush’s fault, or Nixon’s) until they finish dredging up every instance of alleged IRS discrimination during past Republican administrations.

Freddie Sykes | May 14, 2013 at 1:36 pm

The adoring press has a short attention span and the ability to recover from any shock. Remember when Hillary said that it would be very serious if it were true about Bill and the intern. It matter had devoluted into old news by the time it was proved and no one in the press thought to ask Hillary what had changed to make the seriousness go away.

Not to worry… The “press” has turned against the administration.

After watching the Jay Carney show and then a little of AG Holder’s “press” conference, I can state with conviction that the wagons are being circled.

Issue avoidance was the theme of both events!

Mike Butler | May 15, 2013 at 1:50 pm

Woodward was putting his own spin on a story and selectively omitting facts. Whatever, that’s par for the course for pundit journalism these days, but its not unexpected for their to be some a response to that. That’s what any political entity would do, i.e. drum up some media to try to spin the story the other way. That’s all the “threat” e-mail alluded to, not something more nefarious.

Now the secret review of AP phone records is massive overreach of power and a completely different ball game. But I don’t see the connection between this and Woodward. I think your grasping at straws Bill.