Mr. Woodward has demonstrated a regrettable tendency to put his storyline ahead of the facts. There is most notoriously the supposed deathbed conversation he had with former CIA Director Bill Casey that implicated President Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair and just so conveniently provided the perfect scene for a book Woodward was writing on the CIA — even though Mr. Casey was reported to be nearly comatose at the time and witnesses, including Mr. Casey’s widow, denied Woodward’s account. (http://tinyurl.com/6fxyoeo) Woodward has been repeatedly accused of “tilting the facts,” (http://tinyurl.com/5rgtdpy) “misleading remarks,” “disingenuous statements,” and placing “book sales above journalism.”( http://tinyurl.com/5vbz694)

The well known story about Bob Woodward is that he practices what is derided as “access journalism,” whereby he favors those who provide him with information and gossip and leak against their colleagues. Those who refuse to play along, such as Donald Rumsfeld, then pay the price.