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Thursday, November 17, 2005
IS THIS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM? Bob Woodward's "Plan of Defense," From Watergate to Pflamegate James S. Henry
It's another tough day for the country's best-known "investigative reporter."
Let's see. Up early at your stylish Georgetown residence, a quick 30 minute workout on the bike, drop in on the domestic workers to see that the household is in order, then push off to your confortable suite of offices, away from all those prying jealous eyes at the Post newsroom downtown.
Maybe a brief call to Len Downie, Jr., the Post's Managing Editor, just for appearance's sake.
Then drop over to the White House or the Pentagon or the CIA or the Hay Adams for a nice long lunch and a couple of friendly insider "deep background" interviews for your latest best-seller in waiting.
This one will be really great: the inside, blow-by-blow story of how the country went to war in Iran.
If publishing history is any guide, it should hit the streets about two years after the fact.
I'm as big a fan of the Old Woodward & Bernstein Pre-Courtier style of investigative reporting as anyone.
But we've come a very long way from that when Woodward and other journalists
Most of the press commentary about this incident has missed the point. It was not intended to help Scooter Libby, because he's being tried for simple perjury. For the sake of those charges, it doesn't matter one iota when or where Pflame's name was leaked.
Instead, the Woodward smokesscreen appears to be part of a last-ditch effort to defend other senior officials who are still under investigation by the grand jury for leaking Plame's name.
Bob Woodward as a "screen-saver" for White House felonies -- who'd a ever thunk it?
November 17, 2005 at 02:04 PM | Permalink
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