Fire Woodward

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 9:14 AM on November 21, 2005.

After reading the Washington Post "non-budsman's" defense of Woodward's decision to conceal from his editor's his knowledge of the outing of Valerie Plame, John Aravosis writes: "just in case any real journalists are still left at the Washington Post: Bob Woodard's excuse is a lie that a child could unravel."

Woodward says he didn't come clean to his editor in June of 2003 because he was afraid Patrick Fitzgerald would subpoena him.

But Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't even appointed special prosecutor until December of 2003, and Fitzgerald didn't start subpoenaing journalists until May of 2004.

And once Fitzgerald was on the job, Woodward was hardly afraid of going to jail: He OFFERED to go to jail in Judith Miller's place this past July, 2005.

And just so we're clear about how unethical this all is, he not only concealed his knowledge of the outing of Valerie Plame (as well as the reason for concealing it), but he also denounced and belittled the investigation no less than seven times.

Yes, Washington Post, by all means keep wondering why readership is falling. (Americablog)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.