Thursday, February 28, 2013

Is Bob Woodward a Wuss?

It's all over the net, the flap between Bob Woodward and the White House and whether the renown journalist was threatened in an email.  There's a terrific summation at Politico, with the emails and embedded video.  Basically, here's the "threat" part:
...But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.
That's a threat?  "As a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim"? Really? Hell, as a reporter I had threats in late night phone calls, had threats in person, had a gun pointed at me.  Those are threats. 

Now let me be clear, I'm a journalism kid of the 1970s.  I'm a Woodward admirer.  "Woodstein" is why I'm here.  I'm not a partisan in this.

But here's my main point.

Seventy journalists were killed in 2012.  That's a record-breaking year.  For Woodward to call this email "a threat" while reporters are risking their lives in troubled spots around the world is, to me, too damned prissy.  

I hate that my hero appears to be a wuss.


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