Calm down, Bob Woodward: White House flacks threaten journalists all the time
The White House threatens reporters. A lot. It is sort of a humblebrag to say that people with titles as lofty as “Assistant to the President” and with titles as lowly as “deputy press secretary” have used the F-word in conversations with me. Both White House officials and journalists tend to be arrogant and self-referential, and there is a lot of healthy and sometimes unhealthy tension on the job. We yell at each other, and we butt heads, and we live to work another day.
Threats about cutting off access are fairly routine.
Just not if you’re Bob Woodward and used to deference.
I suppose there was a time in Woodward’s career when he would not have taken offense to being bluntly told that he would regret having written something. That time has passed.
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Well, I guess that makes it all right, then.
chotii on February 28, 2013 at 3:43 PM
Sounds like they are suffering from Battered Journalist Syndrome.
“He beat me, but I deserved it.”
portlandon on February 28, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Are there any specific details here?
ddrintn on February 28, 2013 at 3:46 PM
No sale, Marc Ambinder.
The longer a reporter is on the White House beat, the more respect he has. Something is amiss here.
22044 on February 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM
Hey Ambinder, I bet you’d be the first one out their crying if it was a non-Democrat White House threatening you — you hypocritical dolt …
ShainS on February 28, 2013 at 3:47 PM
They sure are rattled by this story.
forest on February 28, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Journolisters are so full of themselves and cannot see that they are nothing more than admin lapdogs. Sad, really.
alwaysfiredup on February 28, 2013 at 3:49 PM
..one wonders if all of these diaper-wearing leftoids would react the same way if they were around back in the day when Nixon threatened Woodward?
The War Planner on February 28, 2013 at 3:53 PM
One mouth says: The WH threatens reporters all the time.
Another mouth says: That was no threat! C’mon!
RedRedRice on February 28, 2013 at 3:55 PM
So Marc, if George W had told Helen Thomas, “Shut up you old hag before I beat you with your own shoe,” that would be okay?.
LincolntheHun on February 28, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Huh, first the media assured us it that it wasn’t a threat and now they say sure, it’s a threat but so what, threats happen all the time. Maybe they should get their stories straight before saying anything else.
clearbluesky on February 28, 2013 at 3:57 PM
sounds like the war on women, eh guys? all these poor journolistas, raped by obama. they all remained quiet. till woodward. now they all come out. rofl
renalin on February 28, 2013 at 4:00 PM
If we win in 16, I hope future President Rubio/Paul/Cruz/Jindal have been taking copious notes of what they will now be able to get away with. “We’re doing exactly the same thing as the previous administration…”
crrr6 on February 28, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Apparently Woodward is more creeped out by the Obama WH than he was by Nixon’s. That’s saying something. And it’s even creepier that the JournoListas will circle the wagons round Teh One and throw one of their idols under the bus.
ddrintn on February 28, 2013 at 4:07 PM
^ JournOlist is still up and running in some form, I’m sure.
ddrintn on February 28, 2013 at 4:09 PM
They aren’t really journalists, they’re paid propagandists who see their job as protecting Obama. They’re not going to let a little bump in the road like Woodward slow down the wagon train on the march to bankruptcy.
Doomberg on February 28, 2013 at 4:10 PM
I’m sure that this guy would have been this blasé about reporters being threatened if people working for the Bush administration were the ones screaming and yelling at reporters and sending emails saying “you’ll regret staking that claim.” Yeah. Really, I believe that.
Just as I believe, along with this guy, that Woodward is just a spoiled brat crybaby who’s whining about being treated just like everybody else in journalism, and there’s nothing in the least bit worrisome about people in high places pressuring reporters to change their stories.
/sarc
Aitch748 on February 28, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Journolist lives…
d1carter on February 28, 2013 at 4:21 PM
Jealous much, Marc? Why don’t you call us back when you have three Pulitzers and 12 best selling books.
rockmom on February 28, 2013 at 4:22 PM
For the majority of liberals Obama can kill all their children and loved ones and they will still excuse what his evil deeds… Liberalism is a mental disorder…
mnjg on February 28, 2013 at 4:28 PM
For the record, I am not all that shocked or dismayed that the most powerful office in the world sends “you’ve been a naughty boy” letters to journalists who offend it. Nor that the wanna-be tyrant/boy-king does to them what he does to everyone else who displeases him.
MelonCollie on February 28, 2013 at 4:37 PM
More like, “He beat me, but it’s okay because he beats people all the time.”
The Rogue Tomato on February 28, 2013 at 4:40 PM
Beating = not okay.
Warnings that it might possibly be unwise to offend the leader and office running the most mighty nation on the planet? IMVHO, kinda expected.
MelonCollie on February 28, 2013 at 4:42 PM
“But quit calling a love-tap a beating!!”
ddrintn on February 28, 2013 at 4:47 PM
*Groan* Not Ambinder again. I began my day mocking him for his I’m a Jew who bashes the pope so buy my book about government secrecy tweet.
Hey,Marc: Did Tony Snow and Dana Perino talk this way? I rather doubt it. Oh well, maybe you were too busy trying to figure out how to out Ken Mehlman to notice
Buy Danish on February 28, 2013 at 5:04 PM
Metaphorically, I see Bob Woodward as Claus von Stauffenberg and Barack Insane-Hussein Obama as Adolf Hitler.
VorDaj on February 28, 2013 at 5:11 PM
Druring the Watergate scandal, didn’t Nixon’s AG, John Mitchell tell someone at The Washington Post that owner Kate Graham was “going to get her t*tty caught in a ringer” if her paper didn’t back off?
The Nixon administration, you know, the people who broke into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to steal his medical records and smear him publicly as unstable?
But then Bob Woodward nees to be lectured by Marc Assbinder about how journalists get threatened all the time. Yup, he sure does.
Mr. Arkadin on February 28, 2013 at 5:15 PM
Woodward is more like Ernst Röhm: a fellow-traveler who’s easily disposed of once his usefulness is gone.
ddrintn on February 28, 2013 at 5:49 PM