Risk-y Business: Bob Woodward is Fake News, By Tribunus Plebis

“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mold the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.” -- Joseph Pulitzer

According a Variety review, “Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear” portrays an erratic, impulsive President Trump who seems to not mind one iota about the disorder in his White House.”[1] It seems purpose made to aid activation of the 25th amendment, a move which is under discussion.[2]

“Fear” was a best seller as soon as it was released.[3] This is rather strange given the fact that so many of his ostensible sources have repudiated their supposed quotes. “Kelly, the White House chief of staff, denied Tuesday an assertion by Woodward that he called the president an idiot. A former lawyer to Trump, John Dowd, denied calling his client a liar. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said she had never heard Trump propose assassinating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Mattis disputed belittling the president as acting like a fifth-grader.”[4] It is telling that even those who quickly left or were pushed out of the administration like Rob Porter, Chris Christie and Gary Cohn have also panned the book.[5] “Fear” is being actively promoted by the communist Chinese government -- that should give you a warm-fuzzy for sure.[6]

Woodward’s willingness to fabricate evidence for effect does make his admission he could find no evidence of Trump-Russian collusion even more striking.[7]

Bob Woodward should return his many awards, for this is hardly the first whopper he has promulgated. He was the editor who endorsed Janet Cooke’s story “Jimmy’s World” for its fraudulent Pulitzer Prize.[8] He helped promote the catastrophic Iraq WMD story.[9] He is also accused of being played by the Bush administration in the Valarie Plame affair.[10] He was arguably unwitting in these deceptions, so let us turn to pants on fire fabrications.

Woodward calls Marine Four Star Generals liars for denying his story.[11] Kelly and Mattis are in excellent company, for Woodward has a career peppered with charges of prevarication. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s widow called Woodward account in “Wired” a lie.[12] Jack Nicholson called Woodward “a ghoul.” Woodward’s own publisher Donald Graham called him a liar. Even Woodward’s story about the flowerpot signal to Deep Throat quite implausible, for his balcony faced an inner court.[13,14]

In “Veil the Secret Wars of the CIA,” Woodward describes a very convenient death bed confession to the Iran-Contra scandal by CIA Director William.[15]
The first problem was William Casey’s own war on leakers and his life-long habit of keeping secrets. During W.W.II Casey was in the O.S.S., then spent a successful career as a Wall Street lawyer before becoming Director of CIA. The second problem is the CIA security detail, including an agent in the “hot seat” at Casey’s hospital room door at all times keeping visitors out. Woodward did try to enter and was escorted out. The subsequent CIA investigation determined Woodward’s story was impossible. Kevin Shipp, one of Casey’s bodyguards describes this in his book “From the Company of Shadows.”[16] Predictably, Woodward dismissed Shipp’s charges.[17]

The third and insuperable problem is Casey’s medical condition. I happened to meet one of Casey's doctors. He gave a lecture to over 100 physicians and angrily told us the following: Casey had a brain lymphoma. Then he got aspiration pneumonia, because he was in a coma! Indeed, aspiration risk does increase with the degree of depressed consciousness.[18] Nearly half of aspiration-related deaths are due to depressed consciousness.[19] This scenario is confirmed in Casey’s obituary. According to a hospital statement, ''The immediate cause of death was aspiration pneumonia as a result of a central nervous system lymphoma.''[20]

Bill Casey was not talking. To anybody. About anything. At all.

Keep this in mind when you hear Woodward's charges from "Risk."

1. Johnson, T., What Bob Woodward’s ‘Fear’ Says About Trump’s Love and Hate of the News Media, in Variety. 2018.
2. Goldman, A. and M. Schmidt, Rod Rosenstein Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment, in NYT. 2018.
3. Stelter, B., Bob Woodward's 'Fear' is the fastest selling book since 'Go Set a Watchman', in CNNMoney. 2018.
4. Sink, J. and S. Donnan, Trump Condemns Woodward’s White House Book as a ‘Con on the Public’, in Bloomberg. 2018.
5. Lucey, C. and J. Lemire, Woodward book goes on sale as ex-Trump aides push back. 2018, AP.
6. Gertz, B., China promotes anti-Trump book, in Washington Times. 2018: Washington DC.
7. Schwartz, I., Woodward: No Evidence Of Trump-Russia Collusion, I Searched For Two Years, in RealClear Politics. 2018.
8. Maraniss, D., Post Reporter's Pulitzer Prize Is Withdrawn; Pulitzer Board Withdraws Post Reporter's Prize, in Washington Post. 1981.
9. Frontline. Interviews – “Bob Woodward". [cited 2018 Sep 14].
10. Rosen, J., Murray Waas is Our Woodward Now, in Pressthink: Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine. 2006.
11. Collman, A., 'They are not telling the truth': Bob Woodward responds to White House chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis denying quotes from his new book, in Business Insider. 2018.
12. Hirschberg, L., The Controversy Over Bob Woodward’s Belushi Bio ‘Wired’, in Rolling Stone. 1984.
13. Pittman, K., Woodward called a liar many times over the years opinion, in WBSM. 2018, WBSM: New Bedford.
14. Mak, T., 6 Bob Woodward controversies. 2012, Politico.
15. Woodward, B., Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987. 1987, New York: Simon and Schuster.
16. Shipp, K., From the Company of Shadows. 2012: Ascent Publishing, LLC.
17. Stein, J., Woodward dismisses CIA guard's dispute of Casey deathbed visit, in Washington Post. 2010: Washington DC.
18. Adnet, F. and F. Baud, Relation between Glasgow Coma Scale and aspiration pneumonia. Lancet, 1996. 348(9020): p. 123-4.
19. Hu, X., E. Yi, and J. Ryu, Aspiration-related deaths in 57 consecutive patients: autopsy study. PLoS One, 2014. 9(7): p. e103795.
20. Pace, E., William Casey, Ex-C.I.A. Head, is Dead at 74, in NYT. 1987.