1. Make no mistake: the taped comments Trump made to Woodward in February & March are very damaging to Trump. But as so often in Trump era, elite norms have given Trump an out: it's fair to ask why, given import of Trump's words, Woodward was silent for months.
2. One oft-made defense of Woodward is that he was acting as an "author" and not a "journalist." But that hardly makes sense since his books are themselves a form of journalism. And journalism carries ethical obligations.
3. To reframe: what is Bob Woodward? He himself says he's a kind of historian -- writing the second draft of history after daily newspaper writers do the first draft. But if he's a historian it's a very narrow sort: a court chronicler.
4. As a court chronicler Woodward is following in the footsteps of Sima Qian, Suetonius, Claremont & the duc de Saint-Simon, writing books that are long on gossip & palace intrigue & short on analysis.
5. In a brilliant 1996 dissection of Woodward, Joan Didion noted, “Mr. Woodward’s rather eerie aversion to engaging the ramifications of what people say to him" and the “disinclination of Mr. Woodward’s to exert cognitive energy on what he is told.”
6. Some more thoughts on how Woodward uncovered a new scandal but himself became part of the scandal. thenation.com/article/politi…
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