'Plan of Attack': a new front on the war over sources

Baltimore Sun ^ | 4/25/04 | David Folkenflik

[Nasty McPhilthy]

'Plan of Attack': a new front on the war over sources.

Woodward talked to dozens but only three are given direct attribution

By David Folkenflik Sun Staff Originally published April 25, 2004

Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, is a pretty important guy. You learn that when you read journalist Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, an investigation of the Bush administration's extensive preparations to invade Iraq.

You learn details about Card, that he worked as a lobbyist for General Motors and that his wife is a Methodist minister. You even encounter descriptions of Card's emotions and beliefs, such as those described in a passage in which he "worried that Iraq was every general's dream of war: a traditional battlefield, big complex plans," or another in which he noticed that the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, had been putting on some weight.

What you don't learn from reading Plan of Attack, however, is how Woodward divined the inner workings of Card's mind. A good guess might be Card himself, but it would only be a guess: the author doesn't reveal his source of that information.

One sign of the continued pervasiveness of anonymous sourcing arrived last Monday. An article in The New York Times addressed the strains caused within the Bush White House by Woodward's account of Powell's misgivings about the war. In six instances, White House and administration aides were quoted either defending or criticizing Powell. Not one was identified by name.

The Baltimore Sun

[meenie]

A book of fiction does not need sourcing.