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.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY