Topic: White House threatenes Bob Woodward over opinion on sequester

[Pandora]

White House Threatens Reporter Woodward: You’ll “Regret Doing This”

Bob Woodward said this evening on CNN that a “very senior person” at the White House warned him in an email that he would “regret doing this,” the same day he has continued to slam President Barack Obama over the looming forced cuts known as the sequester.

Woodward said Obama was showing a "kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

[ToddF]

I think this belongs in the Media Bias section as the coverup by fellow "journalists" will be more newsworthy than Gene Sperling (the e-mailer) going Full Nixon on Woodward.

Leading off, for benefit of the low information New York Times readership...

Jonathan Chait, who takes offense at the thought of old fashioned journalism being performed.

[IronDioPriest]

Woodward could possibly count coup on at least one scalp if he'd reveal the name of the senior official, and box Hussein Obama into a corner of either supporting the person or firing them.

I want to know the name Bob.

ETA: Ah, Gene Sperling. Don't even know who the hell that is.

[Libertas]

Woodward could possibly count coup on at least one scalp if he'd reveal the name of the senior official, and box Hussein Obama into a corner of either supporting the person or firing them.

I want to know the name Bob.

Bingo!  Enough of this!  Woodward is not above fluffing his feathers for his own purposes and this Regime is not beyond manipulation and threats, so lets have the name or just call this a lovers quarrel!

[ToddF]

Missed it by 6 seconds.  

[ToddF]

Gene Sperling is budget director I think, and a beta male pussy, I know.

A plutocrat threatening a journalist.  How rotten is your profession, fellow journalists?  Are any of you going to come to the defense of what used to be the bread and butter of your profession, against some little Nixon wannabe?

[Libertas]

Heh, but no, cannot give the Nixon treatment to a "D" no matter how despicable the "D" is.

Move along, lovers need to just hug it out and get over it already, nothing to see here!

[Pandora]

Doesn't look like it right now; they're circling the wagons around Obongo instead.

Makes ya wonder, dunnit, exactly what it's gonna take to wake these people up.

I agree, too, that Woodward ought to spill the name -- goes to credibility.  Oh, too, do you remember when Bill Clinton last year publicly criticized Duh Wun that the Presstitutes started wondering aloud about his mental faculties slipping?

[Alphabet Soup]

“Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel.”

I wonder if this sperling drone thought that woodward was just another geezer to push around? I mean, Bob is an old geezer, but he isn't toothless by any stretch. And just because he is a committed leftist doesn't mean that you can casually disrespect or threaten the guy.

I don't GAS about woodward - his lack of objectivity lost me a long time ago but I do love a good cat fight.

Toss 'em in a bag and let 'er rip!

[RickZ]

Soup, the thing about Woodward is that he's not just a WaPo reporter.  He's also an assistant managing editor.  So the White House clown, Sperling, is not taking on just Woodward.  Woodward is management at the WaPo, so Sperling is waging war on that paper as well.  Fox, WaPo, like there's any difference. /

My bet is that Sperling never heard of Bob Woodward and probably thought of him as some old newspaper reporter guy, of little relevence.  No one can accuse anyone in the O'Bammy Adminstration, from top to bottom, of knowing the least little bit of History.

[Alphabet Soup]

Soup, the thing about Woodward is that he's not just a WaPo reporter.  He's also an assistant managing editor.  So the White House clown, Sperling, is not taking on just Woodward.  Woodward is management at the WaPo, so Sperling is waging war on that paper as well.  Fox, WaPo, like there's any difference. /

My bet is that Sperling never heard of Bob Woodward and probably thought of him as some old newspaper reporter guy, of little relevence.  No one can accuse anyone in the O'Bammy Adminstration, from top to bottom, of knowing the least little bit of History.

My basic point - but you said it better than me 

[Pandora]

I think this belongs in the Media Bias section as the coverup by fellow "journalists" will be more newsworthy than Gene Sperling (the e-mailer) going Full Nixon on Woodward.

Leading off, for benefit of the low information New York Times readership...

Jonathan Chait, who takes offense at the thought of old fashioned journalism being performed.

Who named Gene Sperling as the emailer?

[ToddF]

Well, the White House, now, who's pretty quick to release relevant information when they think it helps their cause.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html

I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.

I might see how there could be two honest interpretations to that.  The White House says Sperling is concern trolling.  Woodward sees a read between the lines threat.

BUT

Lanny Davis reports the same kind of threat

 

[John Florida]

  They can word it anyway they like but a threat is a threat and the walking the verbal tightrope gets old after a while.

[Alphabet Soup]

Well, the White House, now, who's pretty quick to release relevant information when they think it helps their cause.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html

I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.

I might see how there could be two honest interpretations to that.  The White House says Sperling is concern trolling.  Woodward sees a read between the lines threat.

BUT

Lanny Davis reports the same kind of threat

 

I can't get the wmal page to load (damn firefox!).....can you excerpt or paraphrase?

[Pandora]

Well, the White House, now, who's pretty quick to release relevant information when they think it helps their cause.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html

I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.

I might see how there could be two honest interpretations to that.  The White House says Sperling is concern trolling.  Woodward sees a read between the lines threat.

BUT

Lanny Davis reports the same kind of threat

 

Ah.  Would have been nice to know that earlier.  

The last email that Politico shows from Woodward is dated 2/23, where he tells Sperling 'no need to apologize', yet he revealed on 2/26 what had happened previously.  I suspect subsequent events and another shoe.

And the pussyfooting continues with the above Politico piece because all the authors reveal about the source of the "exclusive" emails is "White House pushback".  Again, the "who" is missing.

Mushrooms, I tellz ya.

[ToddF]

I have to turn off ad muncher to get the wmal page to load, myself.  Must be something in the page that's funny.

Davis told WMAL that his editor, John Solomon, "received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn't like some of my columns, even though I'm a supporter of Obama. I couldn't imagine why this call was made."  Davis says the Obama aide told Solomon, "that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose, or his reporters would lose their White House credentials."

Davis says he does not know if the White House official involved in his case is the same one who is alleged to have threatened Woodward, but he says the language used in both cases is very similar.  In any case, Davis says his editor, Solomon, was not worried by the threat.   

[ToddF]

Oh, silly, me.  Did I also forget to link USA Today?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/02/28/obama-woodward-white-house/1953105/

All we can say is: We know more than a few reporters have received similar e-mails from White House officials. Yelling has also been known to happen.

 

[Pandora]

More on the yelling, at the right this time:

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/02/27/all-the-presidents-thugs/?singlepage=true

[Pandora]

Aaaand, right on schedule, questioning Woodward's competency due to age:

http://pjmedia.com/blog/wh-attacks-bob-woodward-with-ageism-are-these-dems-too-old-for-obama-too/