An eclectic crowd filled the IU Auditorium Monday night to witness a presentation by legendary journalist Bob Woodward.
Woodward’s presentation centered on his soon-to-be, 4-book “Bush at War” series, exploring the Bush administrations military decisions form the war in Afghanistan until now.
Best known for his reporting with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post, Woodward spoke objectively about his two-day, three and a half hour interview sessions with President Bush, and about what he learned by using his investigative skills.
Woodward spoke candidly, revealing his shock when learning that President Bush did not consult his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, when deciding to go to war, and revealing Bush’s religious convictions, and how they impact his decision making.
“He told me, ‘I consulted a higher father,’” Woodward said, to laughter from the audience.
Woodward’s humor carried through the night, starting with a joke about President Bush’s literacy, to President Bill Clinton’s loquaciousness.
For the most part, however, Woodward was serious. He talked at length about the war in Iraq. He revealed that he had learned that the war was not planned well, and that estimations about its difficulty were vastly underestimated.
He was most engaging when speaking about the personality of President Bush. During his interview with the president, he was taken aback by Bush’s statement that we (the United States), “have a duty to free and liberate people” and a “zeal to free.” Woodward said such expressions show the most about the belief system of a leader, and warned to be on the look out for such phrases this election cycle.
He also spoke about the president’s determination, joking about the president’s self-coined title, “the decider.” Woodward spoke about how the president’s self-confidence keeps him in a “state of denial,” the title of Woodward’s newest book. Woodward said that when a very damaging intelligence report about a rise in terrorist attack came out, the president kept it silent, and made a speech the same day speaking about the new turn the US had made in Iraq.
The evening ended with a question and answer session. When asked what questions journalists are not asking, Woodward responded that they were all being asked, just not answered well. He expressed his support for unnamed sources (something he made famous) by saying that you sometimes can only get the truth by enforcing the security of those who have it, and believes unnamed sources are being underused in journalism today.
He was also asked about what lessons he has learned from his work on the Watergate scandal. He felt his most important lesson was to, “work at night.” Saying, “the truth comes out” when sources are made comfortable, usually over dinner or at one’s house. He also said he learned to go slowly, confirming everything, and making sure one has their facts straight.
He expressed his dislike for the “tell is now” journalism of the internet and cable news, saying it allowed for more mistakes, but said he likes blogs. He said that bloggers held people accountable in a way journalists did not.
He ended his answers by talking about the “demon of pomposity.” Woodward said that journalists should not feel they know everything, that they should become less egotistical, and that journalists need to keep asking questions (and that they should work at night).
Monday, September 17, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Not Forgetting...
Some might find this tiresome, yet another column about September 11, 2001?
I find it neither tiresome nor cliche.
I find it obligatory.
Six years later, and it seems people have stopped caring. While it is impossible to forget the events of that day, the public at large seems to have pushed it to the back of their minds.
A new poll came out this week saying most Americans think about the attacks at least once a week, and many once a day. I would be a member of the later group. Whenever there is a bomb in Iraq, a suspicious package in a park, a new al Queda threat, or when someone goes to the airport, the effects of 9-11 are felt.
I remember everything about that day. I remember things I said to people, I remember the temperature of the room I was in when my teacher told me what had happened, I remember telling the kids in the lunchroom to be quiet so I could listen to the Defense briefing. I remember asking Mr. Boyle why we were outside for recess when there were airplanes crashing into buildings. I remember sitting in a darkened classroom while my science teacher informed us about the VX nerve gas in Indiana. I remember running from the bus stop to the waiting van and screaming at my parents about my cousin in NYC, and asking if he was all right, then waiting two-hours in line to get gas. I remember the family huddled on the couch, listening to the President speak to the nation, and wondering if we would go to school tomorrow.I remember that MTV was down, and that I turned it off at bedtime, and when I turned it on in the morning, the video playing the night before was on in the exact place where it had been when I turned it off. And I remember every day afterwards, constantly watching the news.
Which is one of the good things to come out of that tragic day. After 9-11, my personal world, along with that of the entire planet, changed forever. I woke up, and realized that MTV was not important. Make-up, CDs, boys- all seemed to have lost their importance. I started to watch the news, devour politics. And I think I'm the better for it.
However, there is one thing that I must address on this commemoration. Last night here, on the IUB campus, was a (-11 conspiracy group. These people, perhaps more than bin Laden himself, really get my blood flowing. How, in the face of mountains of science, can these people still believe that 9-11 was an "inside job?" It has been proven time and time again that cell phones work up to an altitude of 50,000 ft., and planes fly at 30,000 ft. You don't need to melt steel to compromise a building's structural integrity, just weaken it, and those "secondary explosions" are nothing more than air being forced out of the building as floor after floor falls on top of each other in an accordion-like fashion. And I support the President completely, but I do not believe that he could keep a secret as monumental as that.
America vowed never to forget the events of that day, but they seem to have started to. Each year, the remembrances get smaller and smaller. Less and less airtime is devoted to the attacks and the memorials of them. However, I will continue, every year, to write my remembrances. I cannot, and will not, forget that day, and America should not either. Every year, this day should serve as a reminder of the evil that is still out there, still determined to strike at America in any way possible. it should remind us that we should treasure our freedom every day, and never take for granted that we live in the greatest nation on Earth: the United States of America, and it should serve as a reminder of how united we all were after that day, and possible help us to get there again. The fate of our nation depends on it.
I find it neither tiresome nor cliche.
I find it obligatory.
Six years later, and it seems people have stopped caring. While it is impossible to forget the events of that day, the public at large seems to have pushed it to the back of their minds.
A new poll came out this week saying most Americans think about the attacks at least once a week, and many once a day. I would be a member of the later group. Whenever there is a bomb in Iraq, a suspicious package in a park, a new al Queda threat, or when someone goes to the airport, the effects of 9-11 are felt.
I remember everything about that day. I remember things I said to people, I remember the temperature of the room I was in when my teacher told me what had happened, I remember telling the kids in the lunchroom to be quiet so I could listen to the Defense briefing. I remember asking Mr. Boyle why we were outside for recess when there were airplanes crashing into buildings. I remember sitting in a darkened classroom while my science teacher informed us about the VX nerve gas in Indiana. I remember running from the bus stop to the waiting van and screaming at my parents about my cousin in NYC, and asking if he was all right, then waiting two-hours in line to get gas. I remember the family huddled on the couch, listening to the President speak to the nation, and wondering if we would go to school tomorrow.I remember that MTV was down, and that I turned it off at bedtime, and when I turned it on in the morning, the video playing the night before was on in the exact place where it had been when I turned it off. And I remember every day afterwards, constantly watching the news.
Which is one of the good things to come out of that tragic day. After 9-11, my personal world, along with that of the entire planet, changed forever. I woke up, and realized that MTV was not important. Make-up, CDs, boys- all seemed to have lost their importance. I started to watch the news, devour politics. And I think I'm the better for it.
However, there is one thing that I must address on this commemoration. Last night here, on the IUB campus, was a (-11 conspiracy group. These people, perhaps more than bin Laden himself, really get my blood flowing. How, in the face of mountains of science, can these people still believe that 9-11 was an "inside job?" It has been proven time and time again that cell phones work up to an altitude of 50,000 ft., and planes fly at 30,000 ft. You don't need to melt steel to compromise a building's structural integrity, just weaken it, and those "secondary explosions" are nothing more than air being forced out of the building as floor after floor falls on top of each other in an accordion-like fashion. And I support the President completely, but I do not believe that he could keep a secret as monumental as that.
America vowed never to forget the events of that day, but they seem to have started to. Each year, the remembrances get smaller and smaller. Less and less airtime is devoted to the attacks and the memorials of them. However, I will continue, every year, to write my remembrances. I cannot, and will not, forget that day, and America should not either. Every year, this day should serve as a reminder of the evil that is still out there, still determined to strike at America in any way possible. it should remind us that we should treasure our freedom every day, and never take for granted that we live in the greatest nation on Earth: the United States of America, and it should serve as a reminder of how united we all were after that day, and possible help us to get there again. The fate of our nation depends on it.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Guess Who's Back?
Well, Osama bin Laden is back, and with a new video tape. It has been three years since we have seen him, and nearly a year since we have heard from him.
However, this is not the bin Laden of 2004. In this new video there are no overt threats, no "death to America"s, nothing. The message is more of a moral appeal to the American people. bin Laden attempts to persuade Americans to convert to Islam, for it will enhance their lives and, as bin Laden wisely points out, you do not pay taxes in Islam! Why wouldn't Americans be for that, eh?
most of the 25-minutes tape seems to be rambling. He blames the US for global warming, talks about the housing crisis in the US, and about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is where bin Laden becomes the most focused. He speaks about how America ellected the Democrats into the congress to stop the war, and yet they have done nothing.
He then, however, goes on a lengthy rant about the Vietnam war and the Kennedy assasination.
Calling his message, "The Solution," bin Laden offers only two solutions: either al Queda becomes more agressive in their attacks, or the US pulls all of it's forces from the region.
The video is fairly recent, as bin Laden name drops newly-ellected French President Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Brown, and author Michael Schuer. This is troubling, as it shows that neither age, living conditions, or the US military have succeeded in killing bin Laden. Although, this latest message, I believe, shows one thing: al-Queda is loosing some of its donimance. The US government somehow gained access to the tape before even the extremist websites, causing al-Queda to shut them down to find the leak. Let us hope there actually is a mole in al-Queda, for it might bring us closer to victory.
However, this is not the bin Laden of 2004. In this new video there are no overt threats, no "death to America"s, nothing. The message is more of a moral appeal to the American people. bin Laden attempts to persuade Americans to convert to Islam, for it will enhance their lives and, as bin Laden wisely points out, you do not pay taxes in Islam! Why wouldn't Americans be for that, eh?
most of the 25-minutes tape seems to be rambling. He blames the US for global warming, talks about the housing crisis in the US, and about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is where bin Laden becomes the most focused. He speaks about how America ellected the Democrats into the congress to stop the war, and yet they have done nothing.
He then, however, goes on a lengthy rant about the Vietnam war and the Kennedy assasination.
Calling his message, "The Solution," bin Laden offers only two solutions: either al Queda becomes more agressive in their attacks, or the US pulls all of it's forces from the region.
The video is fairly recent, as bin Laden name drops newly-ellected French President Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Brown, and author Michael Schuer. This is troubling, as it shows that neither age, living conditions, or the US military have succeeded in killing bin Laden. Although, this latest message, I believe, shows one thing: al-Queda is loosing some of its donimance. The US government somehow gained access to the tape before even the extremist websites, causing al-Queda to shut them down to find the leak. Let us hope there actually is a mole in al-Queda, for it might bring us closer to victory.
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