Whore of the Year 2002-- could this have shamed Woodward?

[carolinayellowdog]

http://www.mediawhoresonline.net/woty02win.htm

Hey--

The hypothesis (offered in various posts here) that Woodward's first Bush book was setting a trap seems farfetched to me. More plausible is that its reception embarrassed him, he recognized that he deserved WOTY 2002, and is trying to remove the stain from his reputation. Authorial pride seems a more parsimonious explanation of his turnaround than any long range planning on his part.

CYD

[Kahuna]

1. Maybe Bernstein had a good talk with him. Bernstein seemed..

to have caught on to bushco after Iraq. Maybe he took his old partner to taks after that first book. :shrug; Just guessin.'

[fryguy]

2. I'm more inclined to believe the former

...at least that's what I WANT to beleive...

If Woodward did write his first book in order to dupe the dope into granting him WH access its an absolutely brilliant move. Like using jujitsu on the repkues....play on their vanity and then blind side them, a wonderful coup for the thinking people of the country....

[Atman]

6. It also pulls a fast one of those who praised him

for his first book. A lot of people came out and said "See, if Bob Woodward says this about Bush, you know it must be credible!" Now Bob says this about Bush, and they're left either doing an obvious flip flop or...or what? Either Bob is telling the truth or he suddenly sold out his entire career for what? Either way, it seems to be not good for the Bushistas.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. I vote that Carl Bernstein...

Sat Woody down, at some point after the first book, and shamed his sorry ass bigtime. Then gave him a refresher on Investigative Journalism 101. Perhaps even said he would start mentioning Woody by name in some of the thoughtful speeches and dissertations he was offering up on the paucity of journalism in journalism.

That's what I think.

On edit: I also think there was some rope-a-dope involved as well, but that strategy was only arrived at after Bernstein shredded his ass.

[0007]

8. What ever!

My grand pappy would have said, "Woody broke junior down like a double barrel shotgun and put him in the corner and made a pet out of him."

[murielm99]

11. Bernstein and Woodward do not really get along that well.

They never have. They just happened to be working together when they stumbled upon the Watergate story.

He is a Republican from DuPage County, a very republican county in the western suburbs of Chicago.

I cna't figure out what happened, but I don't think Bernstein had anything to do with it.

[On the Road]

4. Not a Bad Hypothesis --

I've wondered about the change in tone as well.

[BostonTeaParty04]

5. Or maybe the first book was a RUSE to befriend bushco.....

making bushco think,..........'wooo, this guy is on OUR side.'

????

Don't want to give credit to Woodward cause it is ludicrous to do so.

I am subscribing to the theory that there is a big coup going on inside the radical reich..... and bush ain't going into their smashing future.... I am thinking the now absent Richard Perle is in this... with rummy and cheney....

[Warpy]

7. Maybe Woodward woke up

....and realized the couple of thousand bucks he's gotten in tax cuts over the past 3 years are simply not worth the other things the Bush family has done to this country. Who knows?

It's going to be really tough for the Bush gang to deny this book, since his sources are Bush and Powell. I see Rice is out there, though, lying as usual, typical fundy cult memeber.

[The Night Owl]

9. Woodward had to write a fluff piece to get access.

"The hypothesis (offered in various posts here) that Woodward's first Bush book was setting a trap seems farfetched to me."

Why?

Considering who Woodward is, how else would Woodward have gained such access to the Bush administration if he had not first written a flattering portrait of Bush at war.

Far-fetched? No way.

[carolinayellowdog]

12. Authors are just not that willing to sacrifice themselves

Hey,

Your hypothesis requires a higher degree of altruism on Woodward's part than I'm willing to grant him. The part about writing a puff piece in order to ingratiate himself means that he willingly dealt a blow to his own reputation in order to save the country. I've never even heard of an author who deliberately wrote a bad book in order to set up a later better one.

CYD

[Unknown Known]

10. IMO it had more to do w/Valerie Plame

There is total war going on within the intelligence community.

[rucky]

13. He would not have gotten this kind of access...

if it weren't for the first book. You don't get two of the biggest scoops in modern history by being a hack.

[skypilot]

14. I'm one of the ones who started a thread...

...based on the former hypothesis. I'm still up in the air about it. I can't quite get a read on Woodward. He actually SOUNDS like he's lying even when he's telling the truth. I don't quite know what he's up to. I was really surprised when I heard he'd written this latest book after that "Bush at War" thing. I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[robbedvoter]

15. I don't.

I still think this was written like a big whitewash. The war was not planned in january 2003 - but in January 2001 - and I doubt Tenet egged W on.
The 700 mil - another Iran Contra - they got away with the first one, they will again. people don't get that money stuff. Keep digging the Condi-W connection :eyes:

[skypilot]

16. Yeah, that "slam dunk" business...

...about Tenet really didn't sit well with me. Sounds all too familiar. Blame the intelligence community.