Ethics Question for Skoop
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:48 am
A question for our resident journalist.
Bob Woodward has gotten a lot of criticism for withholding his conversations with Trump in Jan-March in which Trump indicated that he knew the coronavirus was more serious than most people thought or that he let on publicly. These conversations were on the record. According to Woodward, he wanted to check out Trump's claims and that, by the time he did so, the extent of the pandemic was already quite well known. Woodward conducted 18 separate interviews with Trump and presumably, had he made Trump's statements public, Trump would probably have not given any more interviews and would have given his own explanations for whatever conversations Woodward already had on tape. There is also the possibility with Trump that anything he says is overblown to begin with, so that by claiming he had things under control, he was just patting himself on the back. And then there's Trump's on-tape version that he didn't want to panic the public.
My question isn't about Trump but Woodward. Should he revealed these conversations back in February or early March when it might have done some good, according to health experts? Why or why not?
Bob Woodward has gotten a lot of criticism for withholding his conversations with Trump in Jan-March in which Trump indicated that he knew the coronavirus was more serious than most people thought or that he let on publicly. These conversations were on the record. According to Woodward, he wanted to check out Trump's claims and that, by the time he did so, the extent of the pandemic was already quite well known. Woodward conducted 18 separate interviews with Trump and presumably, had he made Trump's statements public, Trump would probably have not given any more interviews and would have given his own explanations for whatever conversations Woodward already had on tape. There is also the possibility with Trump that anything he says is overblown to begin with, so that by claiming he had things under control, he was just patting himself on the back. And then there's Trump's on-tape version that he didn't want to panic the public.
My question isn't about Trump but Woodward. Should he revealed these conversations back in February or early March when it might have done some good, according to health experts? Why or why not?