Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Woodward & the Washington Post   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

 From Evan Coyne Maloney :

why would the Washington Post want Woodward's book published shortly before the election? Theoretically, the folks at the Post are journalists, which means that they should only care about reporting the story, not releasing it at a specific point in the election cycle. The fact that the Post felt Woodward had "an obligation" to publish before the election implies that the paper wanted to affect the election; if the reaction of the voters was of no concern to the Post, it really wouldn't matter whether the book was released before or after the election.

President Bush isn't on the ballot in this election, but conventional political calculus asserts that a book damaging to the president would also hurt the president's party, especially in an election that's historically dismal for the party occupying the White House. Did Bob Woodward accidentally admit that the folks at the Washington Post want the Republicans to fare poorly in the upcoming elections? Why else would they care when his book got published?

10/03 07:59 AMShare