Replies

Rice: Woodward book has wrong timing

Posted by Howlin to hchutch; Mr Ducklips
On News/Activism 04/19/2004 11:52:07 AM EDT #15 of 23

Can You Trust Bob Woodward?
Reed Irvine
June 25, 1999

Bob Woodward's new book, "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate," contains material that has given rise to new charges that revive old memories of how "Mortuary Bob" has relied on lies, fabricated stories and other ethical violations to produce the bestsellers that have made him rich. Mr. Woodward is famous for his ability to come up with what he presents as verbatim accounts of confidential one-on-one conversations. "Shadow" contains many of these.

When Mr. Woodward appeared on "Meet the Press" on June 20, Tim Russert asked him how it was possible to find out what President Clinton and his attorney, Bob Bennett, said when they were talking one-on-one. For example, Woodward describes them strolling on the White House grounds, discussing the rumors "connecting Clinton sexually with various women." He writes: "'If you're caught...in the White House,' Bennett said, 'I'm not good enough to help you.' 'This is a prison,' Clinton responded. 'I purposefully have no drapes on the windows.' As for women, 'I'm retired,' the president declared, repeating himself emphatically, 'I'm retired.'"

Here is Mr. Woodward's answer: "There are all kinds of avenues and sources where you can get information, documents, notes and figure out- - - and significantly no one has challenged any of those conversations." Figure out what? It appears that he started to say, "figure out what was said." That would have been an admission that he makes up the dialogue and puts quotation marks around it, but he caught himself and abruptly changed course. Larry King pressed him on the same issue and got essentially the same answer, minus the revealing slip.

Mr. Woodward told Larry King, "The only thing I'm interested in is no one has questioned any of the information. They're discussing, like you are, who, what, where? I think the significance is that the information is exhaustively reported. It's not challenged."

But that is not true. Many of the conversations Mr. Woodward included in earlier books have been challenged. Victor Lasky, veteran journalist and author, found 36 statements in an earlier book, "The Final Days," that were denied by the attributed sources or declared false by those in the best position to know. In his 1987 book, "Veil," Mr. Woodward quoted 19 words that he said William J. Casey, the CIA director, had spoken in an interview with him not long after Mr. Casey had undergone brain surgery. This was a complete fabrication. Bill Casey could never speak intelligibly after his operation, and Bob Woodward never entered his carefully guarded hospital room. Mrs. Casey accused Woodward of lying, a charge he never challenged.

Jane Sherburne, a former assistant counsel in the Clinton White House, in a deposition taken by Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch on June 21, testified that Mr. Woodward had put words in her mouth in "Shadow" about a conversation she had with Hillary Clinton concerning a Newsweek article. She testified that the "dialogue does not resemble what I recall of the conversation."

She also testified that the interview was entirely off the record. She said Mr. Woodward called to tell her that when she saw the excerpts from his book that were to be published in The Washington Post she might think he had broken this agreement. He claimed there was no violation because he had heard of Hillary's reaction to the Newsweek article from many other people, and so he decided to put the words in her mouth.

Ms. Sherburne said that she had not expected to see anything she told Mr. Woodward in quotes because of their agreement and the fact that she had rejected a subsequent request that he be allowed to put some of it on the record. She testified that she sent a written apology to Mrs. Clinton, saying that "as she well knew, the dialogue was made up" by Mr. Woodward and that "to believe in Woodward's professionalism" was not good judgment.

Journalists have been fired for fabricating stories, lying and violating their commitments to keep material off the record. Bob Woodward's publishers and peers take no notice of his sins.