Woodward: "Gossip." Bernstein: "presidency imploding."

[MnFats]

several posters were pissed at Bob Woodward for calling the CIA/Leak/Plamegate mess "gossip."
Well, his one-time partner, Carl Bernstein, takes a different view:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001391666


"We are obviously watching and the press is beginning to document the implosion of a presidency," Bernstein said Thursday, just hours before the Plame grand jury is set to expire. "How destructive that implosion is going to be, ultimately, we don't know yet.

"But what the Plame leak investigation has unveiled is what the press should have been focusing on long before and without let up--how we went to war, the dishonesty involved in that process in terms of what the president and vice-president told the American people and the Congress, and the routine smearing by members of the Bush administration of people who questioned their actions and motives."

[Daphne08]

1. Bernstein is right about the press. I'm old enough to remember

when we had a real press in this country.

[Punkingal]

2. Me, too.

I watched Tim Russert tonight on CNBC, and the reason Scooter Libby called him was to complain about a reporter on MSNBC. Can you imagine Edward R Murrow getting a call like that? Or Walter Cronkite? Murrow would have told them to go f*** themselves!

[Erika]

4. Bush did a huge brainwash job on the country & media

by saying anyone who disagreed with W was a traitor and against our troops. Some of them for the first time are coming out of the ether. Bush sold this country out, lock, stock, and barrel, while decimating a third world country, Iraq.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Obermann I'd bet money.

Libby was wanting Mr. Potato head to lie, the way it looks. If Russet isn't mad about Libby lying about him he's really stupid, or really scared IMO.

[Carolab]

26. Which reminds me--all of this "Shield law" crap.

The situation has focused on the "poor press" being brought into it and even jailed.

Sorry, you asshats brought it on yourselves by violating your true role as a check and balance and by lying your butts off for this cabal.

I wish this violin were smaller.

:nopity:

[calimary]

29. I think that's a VERY reasonable guess. After all, Olbermann was the

one who, just before he began an interview with in-studio guest Joseph Wilson, held up some papers he said were emails from the White House. Those emails, he said, read as follows: (paraphrasing) "understand you're going to have Joe Wilson on your show as a guest tonight. Please call me." Olbermann noted this on the air with a smirk of his own, and said he did not call back. And as with george himself, the sender (probably libby) got very pissed off by this, not being accustomed to having anyone say NO to him, or otherwise refuse his "request." Hell, Keith didn't just refuse, he really did smirk, ON THE AIR, as Joseph Wilson sat there opposite him, ready to be interviewed. I think I also remember Olbermann including Wilson in the joke, along the lines of - here's the extent to which they're going to try to influence what's going out on the air about you, Joe.

[Hubert Flottz]

32. Yes...I remember.

I was in another room and about broke the sound barrier getting to the tv. I was thinking he named Karl as the one sending the message, but you are probably right. KO has been a straight shooter all along. I'm greatful to him for having the guts to tell the truth. One of the very few that I trust in the media.

[Clark2008]

8. Me three.

I used to work for the real press - just seven years ago. :(

[Jim Sagle]

3. The Odd Couple: One Sucks, the Other Doesn't.

[Carolab]

5. Woodward: SELLOUT. Bernstein: THE REAL DEAL. n/t

[tavalon]

6. I often wonder

what Bernstein thinks of Woodward these days.

I know what I think of him - he's a worthless, right wing hack and I doubt he did any of the work but took half the credit for the Watergate reporting.

[calimary]

28. woodward answers to a "higher father."

Sold his soul to the bush devil. Worthless doesn't even BEGIN to describe him. All he cares about is his precious access to the power people. He has whored himself for this, and for them. If he'd behaved back during Watergate (which I, too, am old enough to remember - hell, that's what inspired me and a host of other young whipper-snappers to want to get into the news biz in the first place), there'd BE no Watergate. Nixon would have survived. So would Agnew, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell. Dean wouldn't be a prescient author now. And well, maybe G. Gordon Liddy wouldn't have a talk show career.

[enough]

7. kick

[burythehatchet]

9. In Amerika, one must choose

Either one goes out and finds one's way in the world, or one finds all that he needs suckling on the corporate teat. In Amerika, far too many have suckled on the corporate teat to remember what it is like to carve your path in the world. Bob Woodward happened to be the person that Mark Felt talked to. Bob has translated that circumstance into a very nice living. He's fat, and he's happy.

[cantstandbush]

10. Wooward is a neocon, Berstein is not. n/t

[Quixote1818]

18. Woodward wrote a book favorable to Bush and the War

His whole reputation rests on Bush and the War doing well. He played the wrong cards and aligned himself with the wrong side. His reputation is at stake and probably on the way down the toilet along with Judy Millers.

[Stephanie]

11. It's a criminal enterprise

that's all there is to it - they went in there to lie, manipulate, and loot the treasury. Now they're caught red-handed.

[soleft]

12. After reading this it strikes me that our 2008 candidate

has to be someone with a squeaky clean image - someone actually like Fitzgerald who is above reproach and is regarded as being honest and a straight shooter. The trust factor will be huge.

[ourbluenation]

14. should be Wes Clarke then...eom

[blm]

16. Our nominees in 2000 and 2004 HAD great images till GOP controlled media

changed the narrative on them to whatever Rove wanted.

Expose THAT problem before 2006 and 2008.

Why give in to the RW machine lies as if they ever had any validity?

[Ladyhawk]

23. Good point. They'll just swiftboat whichever candidate we pick.

We need someone who will counteract the lies quickly. No more "political judo." :eyes:

[Iowa]

34. Yep... How about Coleen Rowley?

I think she is incredible, but I'm biased (she grew up in Iowa). We really need fresh faces like Coleen, people who aren't career politicians, to fix the mess the neocons have made.

[elehhhhna]

13. when did woodward retire? poor man. dementia is sad.

[blm]

15. We EXPECT Woodward to poo-poo it...we KNOW he's a longtime BFEE drone

He poo-pooed IranContra, BCCI, and Enron.

[spooky3]

19. I think Bernstein must have carried Woodward during Watergate.

[lostnfound]

21. I think Woodward was spoonfed by his pals in intelligence during watergate

Looks like a duck, talks like a duck, has a history like a duck.

[hiaasenrocks]

30. I am convinced of that.

I used to be a huge Woodward fan, but over the years I have come to believe that Bernstein was the real investigative/analytical mind at work in that pair.

Plus, the connections between Woodward and Felt is just a little strange to me. I think there was more at work there than Woodward will ever tell, and we will ever know.

[ourbluenation]

20. more woodward hijinks here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5222268

[countryjake]

31. And here...

"either Woodward's lying or there's a new leak scandal"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5219462&mesg_id=5219462

[glitch]

22. I just wish we'd hear more from Bernstein, and much less from Woodward.

Maybe Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman can do a part 2.
Redford can play his Spy Game character(without the redeeming act) as Woodward. Nah, still too human. Redford's going to have to go deep and ugly to portray the true Woodward.
Can Redford portray smugly evil? This could be the role of a lifetime!

Edit to correct and add: Judy Miller and Woodward exemplify the term
"banality of evil"

[mzmolly]

24. Man, I can't watch "All The Presidents Men" again in the same light

ever. Woodward has really lost his umpf. It would appear that Bernstein continues his heroic work, and Woodward is coming down with Alzheimer's?

[Marr]

25. Bob Woodward has been a partisan hack for years.

He's been shilling for the big money faction of the Republican Party since the mid-80's at least.

[goforit]

27. Well, Woodward always has worked for Poppy Bush since Watergate.

Woodward hence fans the fire for the PNAC!!!

It's an agenda!!!

BUT, America IS catching on and the future doesn't look
good for these bozos.

[0007]

33. My money is on Bernstein that junior will self destruct ~ nt