Bob Woodward, Pre$$titute Extraordinaire, on Plame scandal

[Presstitutes]

http://www.presstitutes.com/presstitutes/2005/10/bob_woodward_pr.html

Bob Woodward, Pre$$titute Extraordinaire (Part 1): "People can do their jobs without sending reporters to jail," Woodward said. "Reporters shouldn't have to risk jail giving representation. That happens in banana republics, China and Russia, and that should not happen here."

And part 2: "They did a damage assessment within the CIA, looking at what this did that Joe Wilson's wife was outed. And turned out it was quite minimal damage. They did not have to pull anyone out undercover abroad. They didn't have to resettle anyone. There was no physical danger to anyone and there was just some embarrassment." From Jane Hamsher, via Amendment Nine, who comments: "On CNN's Larry King last night, Woodward seemed to go out of his way to emphasize that the CIA's assessment that the Plame leak had only very minimal adverse impact on the CIA's intelligence operations, mostly just some inconvenience in relocating some agenets. He made it clear that we should regard the leak as relatively inconsequential, indeed trivial.... Woodward is either a serious liar or a phony investigative journalist, i.e. one who does not investigate."

[marylanddem]

1. Woodward used to be with Naval intelligence I think n/t

[Stanchetalarooni]

2. Let's kill two birds with one stone.

"Woodward is either a serious liar or a phony investigative journalist, i.e. one who does not investigate."
HE'S A PHONY LIAR!

[AlCzervik]

3. Maybe Woodward doesn't want something bigger then Watergate unless he gets

the scoop, i'm going for the jealousy angle.

[wishlist]

6. Some sour grapes since he dropped the ball and missed this story

He already has lost credibility with his mild softball reporting about the Bush White House in the runup to war and failing to unearth the serious problems of how this Administration ran the misleading campaign to war.

[wishlist]

4. He also insisted that the case has nothing to do with push to war

He is looking at the case with a very narrow myopic view by minimizing the investigation because the leak occurred after the war started and alleging that minimal damage was done by the leak.

Even David Gergen, frequent Bush/Cheney apologist strongly disagreed with Woodward last night saying that this case is all about the White House case to go to war and he emphasized the seriousness because indictments open the floodgate for more inquiries into whether they made false and misleading claims to promote the war.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Can anyone confirm that Woodward is

correctly stating the damage assessment? I don't remember anything about an assessment at all (and I don't understand why the CIA would even share it openly).

Also, slightly off-topic, why does Woodward always look & sound like he's got a gun barrel stuck in his back?

[wishlist]

9. This is first details I have heard from anyone about damage report

My understanding is that the CIA damage report is under wraps as highly classified information. Unless he has an inside source that is leaking illegally to him, he is just spreading disinformation rumors as part of White House damage control.

[soleft]

7. Ray McGovern was on Randi Rhodes earlier this week

and he indicated that there were deaths

[gizmo1979]

8. What happened to woodward?

I saw him doing spin for the repugs last night on Larry King.I guess he's sold his soul to the devil.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Remember that scene in "All the President's Men"

where Bernstein finds out Woodward is a Republican and he gives him a look like, "you've got to be kidding me."

[peacetalksforall]

10. Parallel this - by saying what hesaid, he implies - it's OK to break a law

if there is minimal damage. His statement is the equivalent of opinion only (his) since he is not substantiating his claim.

Compare that with the tight rule of law that we heard throughout the 1990's - coming from the right wing, which included Bob Woodward.

He and the Washington Post that he represents (if that is the way he was introduced) are cheating us and laughing at us. They are sewer propagandists along with the sewer CNN.

[wishlist]

11. " Watergate was only a third rate burglary", there are still Nixon backers

When Deep Throat was revealed, a number of prominent right wingers came out denouncing Mark Felts and playing down the seriousness of the Watergate scandal that they felt unjustly caused Nixon's demise.

[Francine Frensky]

12. We need some Woodward quotes from the Clinton impeachment

as I recall, he acted like that was a serious affair. In 1999, we had Clinton accused of perjury on an immaterial part of a frivolous civil lawsuit. And that's a bigger deal than this??

Someone on DU should be able to dig up some old quotes.

[Supersedeas]

13. Points to Jane Hamsher and says, "BRAVO!!"

[PunkPop]

14. I saw him on Larry King last night.

Someone needs to do some investigative reporting on Woodward to find out exactly who he's whoring for. It was disgusting. Isikoff and Chris Dodd did their best to slap him down a couple times.

It was actually an amazing change for Larry King - a show with some kind of substance. Probably wore him out.

[elehhhhna]

16. BASTARD said the cia outing "didn't really hurt anybody" or some crap

like that--perhaps itwas "no-one got killed...".

I don't recall that Watergate was exactly a boodbath, literally, either...

[LSK]

15. quite frankly, Woodward would have no clue about that

I dont expect the inner workings of the CIA to be public knowledge. Nobody would know if the CIA had to pull people, or rescue people. This stuff just is not reported. One person who might have a better idea would be Fitz thou. His indictment might include information contradicting Woodward.