Bob Woodward has again changed his story on the “threatening” White House email. On “Face The Nation”, Woodward says the email was never threatening.
Video via CBS News:
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Woodward said, “What happened two very good reporters from Politico came to me, and they’d written a very thoughtful piece about bullying from the White House of other reporters and people, and kind of message management that they thought was extreme. And I cited the Sperling emails as an example of not the way to operate,” he said. “I never said it was threatening, I just said, “This just won’t work,’ and it won’t work.”
Bob Woodward later said that he was going to invite Sperling over to his house, and he hoped the President would come with him, “I’m in the business of listening, and I’m going to invite him over to my house if he’ll come, and hopefully he’ll bring others from the White House – maybe the president himself. …Talking really works.”
What we have learned from all of this is that Bob Woodward’s definition of “good journalism” involves attacking Obama. Earlier this week Woodward praised Sean Hannity’s journalism skills, and he followed that up by supporting Politico’s inside the beltway right wing fawning.
After Woodward made a fool of himself by claiming a threat that never was, his only choice was to throw Politico under the bus.
This whining from the beltway press has nothing to do with the Obama administration “bullying journalists.” It is really all about the fact that the Obama White House has bypassed the media and taken their message straight to the American people. The White House’s impressive social media structure means that they don’t need the press to get their message out for them. This President goes around the press and talks to the American people in a way that no other President has done before.
The mainstream media latched on to Woodward’s initial claims because it gave them a chance to whine about how unfair it is that they aren’t as important as they used to be, but the press largely ignores the fact that they have made themselves irrelevant. By consistently not factchecking and giving Republican talking points the same weight as facts; the media has went from the Fourth Estate to a wishy-washy corporate complex that has largely failed the American people.
Bob Woodward invented a story in order to sell more books, and the mainstream media was complicit in his fraud because they wanted a chance to complain about their own deserved fate.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
