Journalist should quote his sources

Dear Editor: There’s huge global media attention on Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear”, a million copies of which hit the bookshelves in the U.S. alone on Sept. 11.

Of course, everybody remembers him and his Washington Post buddy Carl Bernstein for sharing the Pulitzer Prize in 1973; earned for stellar investigative work on the Watergate burglars, and culminating in the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Woodward has written best-selling books on several presidents, but a strange statement he made in 1981 is indelibly etched in my memory.

He was assistant managing editor at The Post at that time, and recommended the newspaper’s Janet Cooke for a Pulitzer Prize for “Jimmy’s World,” reporting about an eight-year old heroin addict.

Her sensational harrowing story had garnered great interest around the U.S. and further afield, but especially in Washington’s political circles, where the mayor falsely claimed to have tracked down Jimmy, who was then reported to have died; the much-coveted Pulitzer Prize was duly awarded to Cooke.

However, her fame was fleeting as other newspapers she had worked for drew attention to inflated academic credentials, and under pressure she confessed to making up the whole sad saga about poor little Jimmy.

After wiping the egg off his face, Woodward made a strange statement that he had believed the story based on anonymous sources, even though other reporters had doubted the veracity.

He concluded: “I think the decision to nominate the story for a Pulitzer is of minimal consequence. I also think that it won is of little consequence. It is a brilliant story — fake and fraud that it is. It would be absurd for me or any other editor to review the authenticity or accuracy of stories nominated for prizes.”

Woodward seemed to be echoing another newspaperman who later became a worldfamous author; Mark Twain said: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” There are many anonymous sources in the latest blockbuster book “Fear,” and all those in the Trump administration who are quoted are rushing forward with loud denials.

On his current book tour, Woodward seems to be echoing Rhett Butler who famously ended “Gone With The Wind” with the immortal line to Scarlett O’Hara: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Bernie Smith

Parksville