Comment on State of Denial by Bob Woodward (Jonathan Karl, OpinionJournal)
So This Is Journalism? Bob Woodward takes a novel approach in his new book on the Bush administration. (Jonathan Karl, OpinionJournal)
Mr. Woodward attempts to write like a novelist, not a journalist: His books are scenic and dramatic and dialogue-driven, more sensationalism than history. Take, for example, this description of a conversation in May 2003 (two months after the Iraq invasion) between Gen. John Abizaid, then deputy military commander in the Middle East, and Gen. Jay Garner, the official briefly responsible for the reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq:
"Garner told Abizaid, 'John, I'm telling you. If you do this it's going to be ugly. It'll take 10 years to fix this country, and for three years you'll be sending kids home in body bags.'"Abizaid didn't disagree. 'I hear you, I hear you,' he said."
Mr. Woodward doesn't tell us where he got this verbatim account of a meeting that took place more than three years ago; he writes as if it is a simple fact that it unfolded as told, not someone's recollection. We cannot gauge whether the source, whoever it was, might have had a motive to put a certain spin on facts. The discussion neatly makes Gen. Garner look like the truth-teller who foresaw precisely what would happen and tried to do something about it. Maybe it's true or maybe it's the way Gen. Garner would like to remember it, but he said no such thing publicly at the time.
As more than a few people have noted over the course of Mr. Woodward's long career, his narratives are propelled in part by who talks to him and, just as important, who gives him the best, most detailed and colorful descriptions of what went on in all those secret meetings.
Well, sure, but he's always darned entertaining! And part of the fun for people who are fans of textual analysis and American politics is trying to figure out who was helpful to Woodward in any given book, and who wasn't.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/12/06 18:49 | Books/Culture | Technorati
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