By Kat Stoeffel 5/15 6:00pm

Posterity

Ben Bradlee

The 15 Most Scandalous Revelations in Jeff Himmelman’s Betrayal of Ben Bradlee

 On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Georgetown society was up in arms over Jeff Himmelman’s new biography of the legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. The Bradlees icily declined to comment, but Post columnist and family friend Richard Cohen told the Times the Bradlees were “mortified” and “repulsed” by the book, which the Times said cast Mr. Bradlee in a “bad light.”

Mr. Bradlee had opened up his home, his friends and his personal archives completely to Mr. Himmelman (a former assistant to Mr. Bradlee’s protege Bob Woodward) as he reported the authorized biography but was now said to feel “knocked over” and “utterly betrayed” by the final product. Read More

By Matt Haber 9/29/08 11:31am

Jill Abramson on Times W.M.D. Reporting: ‘I Failed’

In Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Jill Abramson, the paper’s managing editor for news, wrote about Bob Woodward’s latest Bush administration book, The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008.

Ms. Abramson starts the review explaining the now-typical release process of Mr. Woodward’s books:

The Bob Woodward rollout is always strictly Read More

By Rick Perlstein 10/23/06 12:00am

Woodward’s Belated Scoop: Bush Lied About Iraq!

Bob Woodward, in his quiet, modest way, was mad as a wet hen on NBC’s Meet the Press the other Sunday: Why do you call it State of Denial? Tim Russert was asking. Why, in so many words, did you have to be so shrill?

“That’s what the facts show,” Mr. Woodward responded. “It took Read More

By Rick Perlstein 10/23/06 12:00am

Woodward’s Belated Scoop: Bush Lied About Iraq!

Bob Woodward, in his quiet, modest way, was mad as a wet hen on NBC’s Meet the Press the other Sunday: Why do you call it State of Denial? Tim Russert was asking. Why, in so many words, did you have to be so shrill?

“That’s what the facts show,” Mr. Woodward responded. “It took Read More

By Joe Conason 5/01/06 12:00am

Crackdown on Leaks Can Lead to Trouble

The etiquette and morality of leaking is not always easy to understand, especially for citizens outside Washington. From the journalistic perspective, almost all leaks are inherently good. From the politician’s point of view—as the White House is now demonstrating—many leaks are excellent while others are very bad, and the crucial question is whether the revealed Read More

By Charles Taylor 4/10/06 12:00am

Generous Criterion Set Challenges Myths of Malle

If there were any justice in the movies, we still wouldn’t have to make the case for Louis Malle as a great filmmaker instead of one who was merely provocative. It’s ironic that perhaps the worldliest filmmaker since Max Ophuls was, during his lifetime, often judged by petty parochialisms.

In his early films, Malle, a Read More