So-called liberal media

Geez, a rare moment of candor from a Republican insider.

"I do think that Bob's politics have changed some over the years. He's much more sympathetic to the establishment, especially the Republican establishment," Gergen says. But after "30 years as a trailblazer," he adds, Woodward "doesn't deserve" the level of criticism directed at him.

One interesting aspect of Bob Woodward's "mistake" in the Plame case is that it casts an entirely new light on his relationship with Deep Throat, aka Mark Felt. In that case, too, it was his access to a disgruntled, highly placed official that drove the story. But in Felt's case, the disgruntlement was directed at senior officials of the Nixon administration, while in...cough, cough, Cheney's...case, the disgruntlement was aimed at a critic of the administration.

And Duncan Black is right, Howard Kurtz's article does read like an obituary, albeit one for Woodward's career at the Post. Because, just as we saw with Judy Miller at the Times, there's an incredible level of resentment among the working stiffs of the newsroom -- the writers and editors who have a paper to get out each morning -- towards the pampered existence of "reporters" who trade their easy access to the powerful in order to produce book deals (at best) or propoganda, rather than "news." The unmasking of Miller's and Woodward's techniques have brought that resentment to the fore.