Bob Woodward Visits Stony Brook

Articles by Stony Brook University Journalism Students

By Lauren Sarakos

“What is the thing we really should worry about as citizens and as journalists?” Bob Woodward, a prominent American journalist best known for unveiling the Watergate scandal in 1972, asked a crowd of journalism students, faculty, and Long Island residents at Stony Brook University on the evening of April 11. “I think the real thing to worry about, the thing that will do us in, is secret government,” he answered. 

Stony Brook’s new School of Journalism brought Woodward to Long Island Wednesday night. The dean of the School of Journalism, Howard Schneider, described how “Bob Woodward had found his passion” 35 years ago working at the Washington Post and is now a top journalist studying George W. Bush’s presidency.

An inspiration to the many aspiring journalists present, Woodward spoke of the Bush administration’s various secrets to the attentive crowd. Revealing information that can be found in three of his 12 best-selling books—Bush at War; Plan of Attack; and State of Denial, all about the Bush administration—Woodward gave his audience a glimpse inside the White House from his own eyes. Providing the most detail about his newest book, State of Denial, Woodward explained that the title came directly from the material that he had covered. He said that there has been an ongoing denial of reality within the White House.

“We have not been told the truth,” Woodward said of the Bush administration’s responses to U.S. citizens regarding the Iraq War. While violence overseas has continued to escalate, President Bush has continued to make speeches to the contrary, he explained.  While telling citizens from the confines of the Oval Office that “we have reached the turning point,” an average of four attacks an hour were being made on American troops in Iraq, Woodward added.

The veteran journalist reiterated quotes to the crowd made by top officials in the Bush administration as well as ones from the president himself.  He quoted former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as saying, “competence [in Iraq] is next to impossible,” in addition to President Bush, who said, “I believe we have a duty to free people, to liberate people.”

“There was so much optimism and momentum for war that no one worried about the details,” Woodward said of the Bush Administration prior to invading Iraq in 2003.  He explained that Rumsfeld had listed 29 things that could go wrong with Iraq, with item 13 being that there might be no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the Bush administration’s major motives for going to war. Woodward admitted being an enabler in the push to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He explained that he did not push hard enough to find a smoking gun and said that he should have had more doubt when it came to the weapons of mass destruction existing.

In the business of journalism…we live on doubt,” Woodward said. 

---

By Nathan Shapiro

People had begun showing up well before the start of what Dean Howard Schneider of the Stony Brook School of Journalism had dubbed “the coming-out event” for the school. Journalism legend Bob Woodward was scheduled to appear Wednesday evening, April 11, in the SAC Ballroom, and a sold-out crowd was assembled to meet him.
           
The room of journalism students, aficionados and mere fans was buzzing with excitement as the time slated for Bob Woodward’s arrival neared. Anticipation only grew as the clock slipped past the start time without Woodward’s presence, but when he did step into the room minutes later, the room was filled with respectful applause. The “event” had begun.
Woodward sat on stage while Schneider introduced him to the audience and at the same time introduced the audience to the journalism school and its goals.

 “There has never been a greater need to train another generation of journalists who are smart, prepared, committed, independent and can work in the public’s interest,” said Schneider, alluding to the traits he seeks to instill into his students.  “Few journalists embody those characteristics more than Bob Woodward,” he said.

Upon taking the lectern, Woodward began with the unorthodox request for audience members to raise their hands to show who had voted for Bush or Kerry and, likewise, who supported the war in Iraq. After the count was taken, and the handful of “rich, white war-mongering Republicans,” as Woodward sarcastically called them, had been identified, he began discussing his topic for the night: why the Iraq war came to happen, why it turned out as it did and why the United States won’t leave.

When asked whether he felt responsible for leading the American people to believe weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq and therefore increasing public support for the war, Woodward replied, “I plead guilty.” Woodward said he thought then that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction but should have been more skeptical after sources told him there was no definitive evidence that they existed.

The war, how it started and how it has developed, is the result of decisions made by the Bush administration. “We have not dealt with truth and reality” in this war, he said. These mistakes have led the war down the path it has gone, taking with it much of the public’s support. Woodward noted that more people had raised their hands earlier to indicate they had voted for Bush than did people who still supported the war.

Woodward recounted his interviews with President George W. Bush and the understanding of the president that he came away with. Most significantly, Woodward said that Bush told him that he saw it as the “duty” of the United States to free people. Woodward emphasized the importance of the word “duty” to a president, and said that Bush’s use of it reveals why the United States is in Iraq and why it will remain there through Bush’s term.

“It’s idealism, simply put,” Woodward said. He described Bush as believing firmly in his role as decision-maker and even more firmly in his belief that the United States must win in Iraq. That mentality, he said, is why Bush will not find consensus with the Democrats in Congress over Iraq. Despite declining approval and the possible fate of a bad legacy, Bush persists in fighting for Iraq. History’s judgment is not a priority for Bush, Woodward demonstrated with his anecdotes, but pursuing his idealism in his lifetime is.

At the conclusion of the event, Woodward received thanks from Schneider and a standing ovation from the crowd. If the clapping was any indication, the “coming-out event” was a success. Whether this bodes well for the journalism school and the next generation of journalists it produces is for history to judge, but, as Woodward quoted President Bush once saying: “We won’t know. We’ll all be dead.”