Bob Woodward: Wilson deserved to be smeared

[Halliburton]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200508010003

Just a disgusting display by Bob Woodward. Frankly I was appalled when I first heard Woodward suggest something this outrageous. I know Woodward has become a shill, but to go around and start spouting the same lies that Ken Mehlman was spewing is disgusting.

You can email him at: [e-mail]

[bpilgrim]

1. shows his TRUE colors

again :puke:

peace

[shelley806]

39. Is he Jewish? I love Bernstein, who I think is...Woodward is JINSA, PNAC

Neocon artist IMO.

[still_one]

45. what does it matter if he is Jewish

Most Jews are NOT PNACers, though about half the PNACers are Jewish

Please remember that 70% of the Jewish vote went for Kerry

[Bumblebee]

46. Does not and should not matter

but if you need to know, B. is Jewish and W. is not.

[fujiyama]

52. Why should it matter?

BTW, even if it did, it shouldn't be too hard to realize that Woodward isn't a very Jewish sounding name, while Bernstein on the other hand is about as Jewish a name as it gets.

[WilliamPitt]

58. Yeah, he's down with the ZOG machine

or something.

Dumb Post of the Day Award.

[MinneapolisMatt]

2. Disgusting.

But nothing shocks me anymore. Nothing.

- Matt

[Mr_Spock]

3. Woodward - now a Nazi

Sign of the times.

[glitch]

22. now and then

Perhaps the far right took Nixon down, and woodward has always been their tool. It fits with his adoration of all things bush ever since.

[KittyWampus]

27. I'd Just Like To Point An Arrow To Your Post. This Just Strenghtens

the case to be made that the Right or BFEE took down Nixon.

[Mr_Spock]

32. Nixon pushed price controls and other non-RW stuff

Maybe they did take him out.

[me b zola]

37. Let me highlight your arrow.

I agree with comletely on this. One more bit of damning evidence has tipped the scale.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

44. Perhaps a song is in order!

:think:


I'm dreaming now of Hally,
Sweet Hally, sweet Hally,
I'm dreaming now of Hally,
For the tho't of her is one that never dies;
She's sleeping in the valley,
In the valley, in the valley,
She's sleeping in the valley,
And the mockingbird is singing where she lies.
Listen to the mockingbird,
Listen to the mockingbird,
The mockingbird still singing o'er her grave;
Listen to the mockingbird,
Listen to the mockingbird,
Still singing where the weeping willows wave.

Ah! well I yet remember,
Remember, remember,
Ah! well, I yet remember,
When we gather'd in the cotton, side by side;
'Twas in the mild September,
September, September,
'Twas in the mild September,
And the mockingbird is singing where she lies.
Listen to the mockingbird,
Listen to the mockingbird,
The mockingbird still singing o'er her grave;
Listen to the mockingbird,
Listen to the mockingbird,
Still singing where the weeping willows wave.


Words and Music By: Alice Hawthorne

[H2O Man]

53. Correct.

No doubt about it.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. Wilson deserved it?!

Uh for what reason? FOR TELLING THE TRUTH?! If Woodward thinks the Iraq war is great HE can go serve and report back!

[still_one]

8. woodwardis trying to justfy his pushing the war

but there is no way out for him or the other MSM

the blood of innocents will never forgive them

[shelley806]

42. "the blood of innocents will never forgive them"...and make that NEVER,

NEVER, NEVER...Nor will God forgive them.

[GOPNotForMe]

5. What a stupid p.o.s.

This man's time has come and long gone. Somebody cut his damn mic!

[still_one]

6. well WOODWARD you ASS there is enough around

to discredit you and everything you stand for. Helping this administration push an immoral war

You are just another whore trying to make money

[Cha]

14. Nice of mediamatters to provide bob's

e-mail addy..

[e-mail]

[still_one]

16. thanks, didn't notice that

[Bluebear]

7. Jawohl, Herr Woodward. n/t

[deadparrot]

9. Since I don't want to click on the link...

what, exactly, is his reasoning?

[spooky3]

30. MediaMatters is a great site--why are you reluctant to click on it?

[deadparrot]

31. Because I'd rather not read any of Woodward's filth,

especially if it smears Mr. Wilson.

It's not the site, just the crap that I would inevitable have to read on it. :)

[Halliburton]

33. Wilson was inaccurate and that Rove was just setting the record straight

the same thing that Mehlman was saying a few weeks ago.

[Supersedeas]

36. Notice to the American Public: It is not just the Administration

the Corporate Media has a deeply 'embedded' interest in this unjustified WAR.

[tavalon]

49. Reasoning

That's an interesting word. Not much reasoning going on in his head, as per usual.

Click the link. You can hold your nose. It isn't much and mediamatters is a great site.

[AlCzervik]

10. How many other stories does he neglect to research before

spouting off about them? Shut it Bob.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Part 2 of a two-part series
Secret Admirers: The Bushes and the Washington Post

By Michael Hasty

<snip>

The most important propaganda stage the Post has built for George W to act the role of "president" upon was, of course, what the corporate media still prefers to portray as the "defining moment" of Junior's reign—the events of September 11. The challenge was made more difficult by Bush's Fredo Corleone performance on the day the attacks occurred. After acting clueless enough to dawdle in front of a classroom of second-graders for nearly a half-hour following the crash of the second plane, he then spent the rest of the day flying erratically around the country ("Just trying to get out of harm's way," as he later told a reporter), and appearing perplexed and too small for his suit as he addressed a national television audience that night.

This was a job for Superman—which the Post provided in the form of its premier Washington insider, presidential chronicler and US Navy Intelligence veteran, the legendary Watergate reporter, Bob Woodward. Along with Post reporter Dan Balz, Woodward employed his impeccable journalistic fellatio in an eight-part, front-page series of articles giving a moment-to-moment White House account of the first days of the "war on terror," inflating the image of a cowardly dauphin into that of a credibly decisive commander-in-chief. The articles became the basis for Woodward's subsequent bestseller, "Bush At War"—which is probably best viewed as a sequel to his book about the first Gulf War, "The Commanders," featuring many of the same characters.

Woodward's relationship to the Bush family is particularly interesting (see Part 1 of this series for more details). For the uninitiated, Woodward fairly successfully inoculated himself from any future suspicion that he might be too close to the subjects of his writing with his historic coverage of the Watergate scandal. In the matrix of the corporate media, Woodward is still portrayed as the archetypal intrepid investigative reporter who, with his scruffy partner, Carl Bernstein, spoke truth to power and brought down a president.

In the real world, Woodward has proven to be uncannily close to the highest centers of power.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Media/021104Hasty/021104hasty.html

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Very interesting

So how did Woodward and Bernstein know about Watergate before anybody else? Did Poppy Bush tell them and he broke the story through them or something? :shrug: Anybody who else close to the Bush family is very suspecious to me just because of how these people are.

[Supersedeas]

60. Woodie understands the power of money...

[journalist3072]

12. Just unbelievable, isn't it?

Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame are patriots. They have spent a huge chunk of their professional lives trying to protect America, and look out for our interests.

And this is the reward they get?

Amazing.

[Glorfindel]

17. unbelievable...? uh, no... just par for the course nowadays

Consider John Kerry and Max Cleland as just two shining examples of American heroes smeared by (what?...) subhumans like Saxby Chambliss and the Swift Boat Bullshitters. Mr. & Mrs. Wilson are just the latest victims. They won't be the last. :grr:

[journalist3072]

20. Yes, unfortunately you are right.

[tavalon]

50. Not even the latest

There have been a number since. The only reason this still comes up is because outing a CIA agent is illegal. Smearing people otherwise is just par for the course with this useless and dangerous lot.

[Hubert Flottz]

56. Same thing I thought of...

A definite pattern on veteran bashing.

For example;

From Rumsfeld, an ugly smear and a giant fib

snip...

First, the smear of veterans. Speaking of the 11 million Americans who, during the Vietnam years, answered their country's draft call and the 2 million who served in Vietnam, Rumsfeld alleged that these draftees "added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone."

I'll say "then, they were gone!" Of the 58,152 Americans who gave their lives in Vietnam 20,352 of them were draftees. How dare the secretary of defense say these good and brave Americans "added no value, no advantage, to the United States armed services?"

Why would he slander the sacrifice of these brave men, dishonor their memory and rub salt in their families' wounds? More...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/column.shields.opinion.rumsfeld/index.html

Fibbing and Veteran Bashing is 'just politics' to likes of the royal neocon crew in DC. What else could you expect from a crew that hires the VP's PET company Halliburton, to deliver food to the troops in the field, which had expiration dates that had expired a year before they were delivered.

What could the troops and their families back home do with the 6 to 9 billion dollars, that are Missing In Action in Iraq? What could the veteran's hospitals do with that 6 to 9 billion? Even now that the DoD has proof that Halliburton has cheated the taxpayers and the troops, Halliburton is still being handed more 'No Bid Contracts' in Iraq.

Commander Bushco had already tried to feed the troopers a 'Rubber Turkey' on his clandestine Thanksgiving Day photo opportunity in 'Baghdad'. The troops should have told the AWOL, to go stuff it!

[AuntiBush]

43. You are So Right, jounalist3072!

And it's way past amazing with each passing day, at that!

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have stood way taller than them all, showing more patriotic courage then all the rest of the a$$wipes!

And it's very odd, that Watergate connection.

[delete_bush]

13. Woodward shows disdain for anyone

he feels is trying to follow in his footsteps.

Follow the money. The trail leads directly to Woodward's million-dollar book deals.

[goclark]

18. I thought he was CIA ? No? nt

[Frederik]

23. Naval Intelligence

like his father, who was both Army and Navy intel, which is pretty unique. He's been a spook all his professional life.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

15. self delete until I can support my argument.

There was a tabloid book that came out about John Lennon in the early 80's which I would have sworn Woodward wrote, however, I remember a Rolling Stone article about his Belushi book around that same time.

I apologize to all those folks who thought Woodward wrote the Lennon bashing book (someone did, just don't know who it is).

Sorry again, and thanks for your tolerance of the memory impaired.

MKJ

edited to add, thanks NYCgirl, I posted on faulty memory only, I really appreciate your pulling my something or other out of the fire.
:hi:

[FreedomAngel82]

21. He smeared John Lennon?????

Are you kidding?

[NYCGirl]

28. Woodward never wrote a book about John Lennon. He did write a book about

John Belushi (who, IMO, was great but hardly the "voice of a generation".

[MasonJar]

24. I just e-mailed Chris Matthews, but could get to Woodward. Boy,

how the mighty have fallen...into a piece of _______. (you get to fill in the blank with your favorite) I'm going to go with "hoof and mouth disease."

[joemurphy]

25. I get kind of sick of so-called reporters --

here Chris Matthews and Bob Woodward -- that start running their mouths without having any command of the facts. Wilson went to Niger, found nothing, and then reported this to the CIA. He made no written report. The CIA, after debriefing Wilson, then wrote up a report and disseminated it to the NSC and to Cheney's ragtag intelligence operation at the Pentagon (his so-called Office of Special Projects).

After Wilson wrote his July 6, 2003 NYT op-ed piece (which accused the White House of "twisting" intelligence in Bush's State of the Union address - where Bush used the "sixteen words" to the effect that the British had determined that Saddam had attempted to purchase uranium in Africa) the White House went on the defensive and tried to discredit Wilson.

Initially the White House crawled into a fetal position and tried to blame the gaffe in the State of the Union on George Tenet. Tenet dutifully fell on his sword and issued a mea culpa claiming that the "sixteen words" shouldn't have been in the speech because the intelligence was too thin.

Meanwhile, Ari Fleischer had a press conference or gaggle claiming that Wilson, himself, had brought back intelligence confirming that Saddam had indeed tried to buy uranium. Fleischer based this novel theory on a paragraph in Wilson's article that indicated Wilson had found one Nigerien businessman that had been approached by an Iraqi delegation. The businessman assumed that the approach could only be about uranium and reported the approach to the Nigerien government. Wilson said that this assumption did not rise to the level of good intelligence, especially since he determined that Niger's uranium was closely controlled and had been pre-sold, for years in advance, to Japan, France and other western countries, leaving Niger with no uranium to sell to Iraq even if it wanted to.

Of course, we now know that Iraq's nuclear program was dismantled in 1991 and had never been reconstituted. There was no point in Iraq attempting to buy yellowcake because it didn't have any means of using it even if it did acquire it.

The British "Butler Report" never recanted its assertion that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium in "Africa". It claimed that although Saddam wasn't attempting to get it from Niger (and thus corroborated Wilson on this point), he was trying to get it from other African sources. There aren't many of these. Gabon and the Congo are about the only other places in Africa where such is obtainable. And the same problems apply -- why would Iraq try to buy it from these countries if it had no program in place to develop it?

So this is the "murkiness" that Matthews and Woodward are talking about. It's only "murky" because Tweety and Deep Mouth failed to do any research and jumped to the stupid conclusion that somehow Wilson was lying and therefore deserved to be discredited.

This is totem-pole stupidity of the worst order and emblematic of the two dullards that routinely pass themselves off as reputable journalists. Woodward should become a White House gossip columnist. That's all he's ever been any good at. He's too lazy to dig into facts that anyone could find on the Internet.

I get so tired of these idiots. But they just keep on rehashing the standard Republican line. Fuck 'em.

[glitch]

26. If woodward's story wasn't so sordid it'd make a good Robert Redford

sequel to All the President's Men. Great role, but it would make people sick to see it.

[mmonk]

29. self serving putz

[niallmac]

34. schmuck

[dmr]

35. How would Woodward really know anyhow?

He has access to classified info?

If I remember correctly, Ambassador Wilson DID NOT WRITE a report when he returned from Niger. He gave a verbal report to the CIA - the CIA, then wrote the report.

Woodward is a disgusting individual. I don't know which is bigger, his ego or my disgust for him.

[LSK]

38. and yet no details on how the stories differ

Typical.

[Gabi Hayes]

40. did I miss the OBVIOUS response to this BS?.......

what was the WH's response to the Wilson column?

they RESCINDED the sixteen words in the SOTU address. how can it get any simpler than that?

if there was ANY doubt at all about the accuracy of Wilson's report, you know for damn certain that they'd be pounding the hell out of that, rather than any sort of tangential distractions, chiefly those having to do with his wife's involvement

or am I missing something here?

[fooj]

51. No kidding! RESCINDED 16 words...

Sounds simple enough...

Peace.

[barb162]

41. I can't believe Woodward did this.

Most of the time I have seen him as pretty neutral. I read his book on the Iraq war and it was very clear he was not doing a fan club book of the neocons and the rush/push to war.

[kodi]

47. like many who achieve fame early, he has gotten lazy about his craft

less than one hour of searching on the net would have shown his comments to be untrue.

wilson's "report" to CIA was verbal, it was reported in the SSCI to have been interpreted by CIA and the State Dept to have lended credence to their position that Iraq was NOT attempting current purchases of uranium press cakes, and to DoD that it proved that the iraqis had attempted to buy uranium press cakes.

the DoD were wrong, as is woodward.

[tavalon]

48. Nothing new here

He's been kissing Bush Ass since, well, since 2000 at least.

[Disturbed]

54. Remember the book Woodward wrote about...

CIA Chief Casey, which was debunked?

[deacon]

55. he is suffering from attention diversion deficit disorder from me me me!

[Burried News]

57. Thanks Bob we need all the help we can get to keep this story

out there. Forgive us for using you Bob unfortunately even we need useful idiots. Regards to Krautyammer and George Shill - I expect they will be expounding soon also. TTFN (tata for now)

[McCamy Taylor]

59. Woodward looked nervous on Daily Show, scared Stewart would out him

as the shill he had become. Stewart was very polite to him, but it was clear that Bernstein was the one who most comfortable being on that show.