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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernstein Reveals Woodward (2005)
I called Carl Bernstein to ask what he thought of his old partner's behavior. He was loyal as ever but he did say something very revealing -- and unintentionally damning. "This investigation," he told me, "has cast a constant searchlight that the White House can't turn off the way it has succeeded in turning off the press. So their methodology and their dishonesty and their disingenuousness -- particularly about how we went to war -- as well as their willingness to attack and rough up people who don't agree with them are now there for all to see. They can't turn off this searchlight, which is shining on a White House that runs a media apparatus so sophisticated in discrediting its critics it makes the Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Ziegler press shop look like a small-time operation." And these are the very thugs that Woodward was protecting while attacking the guy operating the searchlight.
more blasts from the past here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/woodward-from-watergate-h_b_10773.html
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)I take that back. He's lower than slug doo.
graham4anything
(11,464 posts)(NO PUN INTENDED).
Which from the day it happened I always wondered
Why the double by-line for everything but Deep Throat
and one day it dawned on me
solidified by later on, other people's comments about Woodward's past
Something only known when the internet came into being
Woodward revealed 100% of what the breadcrumb thrower DT wanted revealed.
(And I still btw, find it hard to believe that the person near the very end of his life was DT, and not someone paid to say he was DT. I still have my doubts, but that matters little.
Believe the point of Watergate (as Russ Baker said in his book "Bush family secrets" was to take down Nixon (believe it or not) and install the Bush's into the #1 power in America.
And it worked, though took a few more years than planned.
(41 tried hard to be Agnew's successor, but Nixon would have no part of that, one thing to give Nixon credit for). (And 41 tried for Ford's VP but didn't get it).
Had Nixon gave 41 the VP, he would have become President earlier and knowing the way Bush fights, might have given Jimmy Carter a run for the money in 1976.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Like his boss at the WaPo, Managing Editor Ben Bradley, Woodward was Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Unlike Bradley and Woodward, who was assigned to partner with Woodward because Carl can actually write good, readable copy and has other reporting skills, Bob Woodward had no real credibility or experience as a professional reporter before he was hired at WaPo shortly before the Watergate burglary occurred.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)According to Media Watch of May 1991: "The Washington Times skewered The Washington Post for its May 21 treatment of the new Watergate expose, Silent Coup. The book presents evidence that Watergate wunderkind Bob Woodward briefed Alexander Haig when he served in the Navy, and later used him as a source for his Watergate stories. Times reporters Michael Hedges and Jerry Seper noted that "the Post story doesn't mention Mr. Woodward until paragraph 12, although his role was a prominent part of stories done by the Associated Press, Reuters, and TV's Good Morning America." Hedges and Seper reported that Post media reporter Howard Kurtz "did not quote from transcripts of tape-recorded interviews the authors released Monday in which...witnesses [former Joint Chiefs head Thomas Moorer and former Pentagon spokesman Jerry Friedheim] back the authors' allegations about Mr. Woodward. Mr. Kurtz now says he wasn't aware of the transcripts when he wrote his story, even though a Post reporter attended the news conference at which they were released." The Times duo also noted that "Mr. Kurtz's story in the Post quoted no one in support of the book." Kurtz told the Times: "I personally interviewed [Nixon historian] Roger Morris, and had several quotes from him in the story. As it went through the editing process, for space reasons...they were cut." How ironic. Now who's covering up?" To date, the Washington Post has neither retracted or corrected these claims.
http://www.watergate.com/stories/deepthroat.asp
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 4, 2013, 06:29 PM - Edit history (2)
There's actually good evidence for that in the Yeoman Radford-Moorer Affair (Google that). Here's a good article to start: http://www.watergate.com/stories/obit.asp
According to Silent Coup, Woodward was part of the ONI unit that worked out of the White House basement communications unit, run by the military, that handled liaison between the NSC and the JCS. Woodward had no real reporting experience when he was hired by Bradley, the Managing Editor. Bradley's autobiography indicates he was ONI during WW2 and afterwards worked as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek. The Post, which owns Newsweek, is closely linked with the CIA.
However, I disagree with the conclusion drawn by the authors of Silent Coup that the Pentagon's spying on the White House was motivated by Cold War concerns that the White House was giving away too much on Vietnam and START negotiations for the Admirals and Generals taste.
I think the timing of Watergate indicates a pushback by the CIA, FBI and the military against Nixon's pressures to use the IC as his own political police for domestic partisan dirty tricks. The 1st Watergate break-in came exactly a year after the Huston Plan was distributed, which would have formally placed domestic internal security powers under the White House. For their own reasons, neither Hoover nor CIA Director Richard Helms wanted to go along with that. The JCS would have gone along with the others.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)I thought the theories were outlandish. Now I am not so sure. But I do not trust Woodward and won't read his books. There is just something about the guy . . . . .
On edit, listen to Woodward's speech and voice. He is very guarded. His emotions, his body and his voice mechanism are not coordinated, not working together. He hides a lot.
That makes me very suspicious.
I studied singing and rely on my hearing for things that other people use their eyes for. Woodward's voice is extremely controlled. It expresses very little emotion. I do not feel comfortable when I hear him speak. Listen to him. His voice literally shakes as if he is very calculating and maybe a bit afraid.
OldDem2012
(3,526 posts)....unless he wants to end up like James Howard Hatfield, the author of "Fortunate Son", who was a supposed suicide in 2001 by prescription drug overdose.
Or, Joseph Daniel Casolaro, who was working on a story about "the Octopus" which connected a lot of the dots of some of the major news stories of the 1980s (like Inslaw, the Iran-Contra scandal, the October Surprise, and the BCC) when he supposedly committed suicide in 1991 by slashing his wrists SEVERAL times.
Or, Gary Webb, who allegedly committed suicide in 2004 by shooting himself TWICE in the head. Webb was best know for his 1996 "Dark Alliance" series which investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had allegedly smuggled cocaine into the U.S. with the full knowledge and support of the CIA.
There are several others, but I'm running out of time this morning.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)When the Praetorian Guards take over, you know the Empire is in steep decline.
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)WTF?