What's going on here?

Let's look carefully about what we know of Bob Woodward and the CIA leak story:

Woodward claimed all along it was a tempest in a teapot. We now know he was speaking with first hand knowledge.

Woodward went on TV, notably Larry King Live, to say so.

Woodward did not tell his editor that he had been told Vallerie Plame's name months before it became common knowledge.

Woodward was protecting his source.

Woodward was also protecting a book he was writing about the push to go to war.

The supposed conflict lies in his duty as a journalist at the Washington Post vs. his duty as an author to his publisher. In both cases he is acting a journalist, but he is doing so in different media and for different masters. He was also a journalist when he was being interviewed by Larry King, but there it is a bit more sticky. Journalists are supposed to conduct interviews, not be the subject of them.

Woodward's many hats--newspaper reporter, newspaper editor, author, and Washington insider, all mesh together. But those multiple roles have now made woodward part of the biggest story in Washington right now. Absolutely he cannot cover the story anymore. He has noreasonable claim to objectivity, no journalistic authority, at this point. More then that, after months of criticizing Patrick Fitzgerald for trying to force reporters to name their sources, he is now going to be subject to the special prosecutor's intimidation himself.

Woodward made his fame out of steadfastly, for more then thiry years, protecting the identity of the most famous annonymous source in Washinton history. Of coruse he's going to stick to his principles now. And with Woodward it is a matter of principle.

What we've really learned in this investigation is that much of what passes for news in Washington is really just gossip. Woodward heard from somebody who heard from somebody who heard back stage at Meet the Press that the President is having fish for dinner and might be thinking of bombing Liechtenstein. But this whitehouse has made an art out of using rumor and inuendo to sway public opinion and destroy careers, so why should we be surprised? And, at the foundation of it all, is Woodward himself, who along with Carl Bernsteina nd Deep Throat created the culture of Washington journalism, wherein the most reliable sources are always annonymous, the reporters are alwasy digging for that secret scoop and the pols know this and manipulate them through the use of carefully planned leaks. So Woodward has only himself to blame for his current predicament.