Only the Shadow knows

As another Woodward bombshell hits Washington, the daggers come out for one of America's most famous journalists.

By Jake Tapper

Jun 18, 1999 | We sure cut Bob Woodward a lot of journalistic slack.

Not all of us, of course. Controversy about the Washington Post's stellar celebrity snoop's unfathomable access to private conversations in the halls of power rears its head nearly every time he churns out one of his bestsellers. This week that controversy surrounds his new book, "Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate," which hit stores a few days ago.

The reaction to "Shadow" has followed the typical post-Woodward-book-release script: 1) Book hits the stands and the Washington Post excerpts it. 2) Reporters regurgitate the most titillating tidbits, usually missing the point of the tome's larger thesis. 3) Woodward's sourcing is questioned -- either for anonymity, for single-sourcing or for the supposedly unvetted hidden agendas of his informants. 4) The book becomes a bestseller. 5) Years later, after the administration in question has ended, or key players have died, Woodward's accounts are verified.

We are currently somewhere between phases 3 and 4. In "Shadow," Woodward once again titillates his readers by worming his ear near the lips whispering the most private conversations in the world.

President Clinton tells a friend that, post-Monica, his marriage "will never be the same." Clinton calls FBI Director Louis Freeh a "goddamn fucking asshole!" Hillary tells a friend, "I've got to take this. I have to take this punishment. I don't know why God has chosen this for me, but he has and it will be revealed to me. God is doing this, and he knows the reason. There is some reason."

Judge Susan Wright tells Paula Jones' lawyers, "Everyone in Arkansas knows he plays around, but you'll never get 12 people to believe he harassed her." Upon hearing the president's "oral-ain't-immoral" protestation, Clinton attorney Bob Bennett says, "You can't do this. It's insanity ... These distinctions are absurd. This crap won't fly with anyone ... It's awful, awful advice." He goes on to tell his client, "Mr. President, I find your explanation about one of these women, frankly, unbelievable. This is what impeachment is made of."

Good stuff, no? But Woodward argues that by getting stuck on some juicy news hooks, some reporters have missed his larger thesis. "I would argue that the book asks, 'How do presidents [post-Watergate] deal with investigations, scandals, mistakes, questions about their behavior -- from policies to their personal lives, to foreign policy to pardons," Woodward says. "It is a new world that the presidency lives and exists in. If somebody says, 'What's the big deal?' I say, 'The presidency has changed ... and presidents after [Nixon] didn't get it.' So this ducking and dodging and not coming clean, this absence of straight talk, this has had a debilitating effect on the White House, the presidents, their aides and the country."

Still, critics continue to ask what Woodward gives up in exchange for these oft-unattributed retellings. Many reporters argue that one unnamed source for these conversations is not enough to justify dropping his transcripts into the teletype of history. Some say he often gets spun in exchange for the access, buying too readily into his source's agenda-sullied point-of-view. And hardcore anti-Woodward stalwarts ludicrously maintain that Watergate's fabled "Deep Throat" is an amalgam at best, or an invention at worst.

This time around, the recounting of the Bennett-Clinton conversations alone has raised a legal question that goes beyond parlor-room gossip about who the next generation of baby Deep Throats might be. On Wednesday, ABC News' Sam Donaldson asked White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, "If Bennett didn't violate attorney-client privilege, who would have said that? Because, as you pointed out in an earlier question, there might have been only two people in the room."

"Sam, maybe you should have Mr. Woodward on your program on Sunday and ask him that question directly," Lockhart replied. "The president did not talk to Mr. Woodward. I suggest you ask Mr. Bennett the circumstances of how Mr. Woodward may have acquired that information." The White House would have no further comment.

"The question is the quality of the information," Woodward said in an interview with Salon News. "The information has turned out to be correct, going back to Watergate and going through all of these stories. Look at the recent one, 'The Agenda'" -- the sourcing for which Woodward argues has been verified by others. "In [former White House aide George] Stephanopoulos' book, he tells kind of the whole story about how everyone cooperated with me, including the president and the first lady."

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