Death Rattle
Bob Woodward has disclosed he was an early participant in events around the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA operative.
Woodward did not disclose his role in this tangled Plame affair to his editor at the Washington Post because Woodward was afraid he might be the target of a subpoena.
I don’t watch a lot of television, but I happened to watch Larry King Live October 27 [transcript] when Woodward was on the panel. I remember this excerpt, and how at the time something seemed “off” to me:
[tease] (emphasis added)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We’re in Washington where things are hopping and we’re going to follow up again tomorrow night. We’re going to lead this round with Bob Woodward as we turn to tomorrow.
But, Michael Isikoff whispered to me during the break that he has a key question he’d like to ask Mr. Woodward, so I don’t know what this is about.
ISIKOFF: No, look, this is the biggest mystery in Washington, has been really for two years and now as we come down to the deadline of tomorrow the city is awash with rumors. There’s a new one every 15 minutes and nobody really knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. Nobody knows what Fitzgerald’s got.
I talked to a source at the White House late this afternoon who told me that Bob is going to have a bombshell in tomorrow’s paper identifying the Mr. X source who is behind the whole thing. So, I don’t know, maybe this is Bob’s opportunity.
KING: Come clean.
WOODWARD: I wish I did have a bombshell. I don’t even have a firecracker. I’m sorry. In fact, I mean this tells you something about the atmosphere here. I got a call from somebody in the CIA saying he got a call from the best “New York Times” reporter on this saying exactly that I supposedly had a bombshell.
KING: (INAUDIBLE).
WOODWARD: Finally, this went around that I was going to do it tonight or in the paper. Finally, Len Downie, who is the editor of the “Washington Post” called me and said, “I hear you have a bombshell. Would you let me in on it.”
KING: So now the rumors are about you.
WOODWARD: And I said I’m sorry to disappoint you but I don’t.
KING: What do you think will happen?
WOODWARD: But Michael’s point is exactly right. There is deep mystery here. It only grows with time and people are speculating and there are — there is so little that people really know.
Now there are a couple of things that I think are true. First of all this began not as somebody launching a smear campaign that it actually — when the story comes out I’m quite confident we’re going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter and that somebody learned that Joe Wilson’s wife had worked at the CIA and helped him get this job going to Niger to see if there was an Iraq/Niger uranium deal.
And, there’s a lot of innocent actions in all of this but what has happened this prosecutor, I mean I used to call Mike Isikoff when he worked at the “Washington Post” the junkyard dog. Well this is a junkyard dog prosecutor and he goes everywhere and asks every question and turns over rocks and rocks under rocks and so forth.
KING: And doesn’t leak.
WOODWARD: And it doesn’t leak and I think it’s quite possible that though probably unlikely that he will say, you know, there was no malice or criminal intent at the start of this. Some people kind of had convenient memories before the grand jury. Technically they might be able to be charged with perjury.
But I don’t see an underlying crime here and the absence of the underlying crime may cause somebody who is a really thoughtful prosecutor to say, you know, maybe this is not one to go to the court with.
KING: You’re saying this is a maybe.
WOODWARD: A maybe, only a maybe.
We now know enough that it appears that Woodward was not being totally honest.
First Judith Miller of The New York Times, and now the ultra-famous Bob Woodward have apparently violated traditional journalistic principles.
The mainstream media death rattle is audible. It’s sad, but after many good years the end is near.
Somebody needs to call hospice, now. Death is never pretty, but let’s maintain a humane death watch for our tired old friend, the mainstream media.