{"id":3474,"date":"2020-09-20T22:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T22:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3474"},"modified":"2020-09-20T22:00:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T22:00:59","slug":"bob-woodwards-new-book-rage-and-the-controversies-around-it-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=3474","title":{"rendered":"Bob Woodward\u2019s new book Rage, and the controversies around it, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“In early February, Trump privately told Woodward that the new coronavirus was \u201cmore deadly\u201d than the flu, and that it \u201cgoes through air\u201d \u2014 as he was publicly suggesting that the virus was similar to the flu<\/a>. Then, as the virus ravaged New York City in mid-March, Trump told Woodward that he had wanted to \u201cplay it down.\u201d”
…
“Woodward rose to fame as half of the Washington Post\u2019s \u201cWoodward and Bernstein\u201d reporting duo that helped expose the Nixon administration\u2019s Watergate cover-up \u2014 triggering a scandal that led to Nixon\u2019s resignation. But in recent decades, Woodward\u2019s main reporting interest has been using his Washington connections to report and write books about what\u2019s going on in the highest levels of the US government, especially the presidency. (He has written two books on the Clinton administration, four on the George W. Bush administration, two on the Obama administration, and now two on Trump.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The books have tried to put readers \u201cin the room,\u201d depicting what happens behind closed doors. To do that, Woodward relies on the cooperation and anonymized accounts of top-level government officials. He then presents a narrative, based on sources and sometimes documents, in an omniscient style, but largely focused on certain characters.” …
“his critics have long argued that his accounts, far from being neutral, are heavily skewed toward his major sources\u2019 points of view and priorities, and portray those who didn\u2019t talk as ciphers or villains. The reality is a bit more nuanced (talking a lot doesn\u2019t guarantee you a good portrayal, as Trump found here), but his readers are absolutely getting a particular version of what happened, as told by particular people.”
…
“On February 7, Trump called Woodward<\/a> and surprisingly brought up the coronavirus when there were few confirmed cases in the US, and when impeachment had been dominating the news. Trump opened by saying that there was \u201ca little bit of an interesting setback with the virus going on in China,\u201d and that he\u2019d spoken with President Xi Jinping the previous night.
\u201cWe were talking mostly about the virus, and I think he\u2019s gonna have it in good shape, but it\u2019s a very tricky situation,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt goes through air, Bob, that\u2019s always tougher than the touch. … You just breathe the air and that\u2019s how it\u2019s passed.\u201d
He continued: \u201cThat\u2019s a very tricky one. That\u2019s a very delicate one. It\u2019s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.\u201d Apparently speaking about mortality rates<\/a>, he says: \u201cThis is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent. You know? So, this is deadly stuff.\u201d However, he went on to say that he thinks the Chinese have it under control, and that \u201cI think that that goes away in two months with the heat,\u201d because \u201cas it gets hotter that tends to kill the virus.\u201d
Here, and notably early, Trump is saying (in private) both that the virus can spread through the air and that it\u2019s very deadly and dangerous. This is quite different from what he was saying in public. In the coming weeks, Trump would publicly say the virus was similar to the flu<\/a>, and would argue that mortality rates wouldn\u2019t be so high<\/a>.
Then, in another conversation with Woodward on March 19 \u2014 once New York City was reeling from the virus, the country had begun to shut down, and Trump\u2019s public commentary had become more pessimistic<\/a> \u2014 Woodward asked Trump when his thinking on the seriousness of the threat had changed. \u201cI wanted to always play it down,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI still like playing it down, because I don\u2019t want to create a panic.\u201d” 
…
“It\u2019s also possible that Trump was misled by the Washington conventional wisdom that people who talk to Woodward get rosier portrayals in his books. There\u2019s some truth to that, but the problem is that Trump didn\u2019t really cooperate in the way Woodward prefers \u2014 by walking through his decisions and mentality at key moments in an orderly way, to provide building blocks for the book\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Trump repeatedly ignored Woodward\u2019s specific questions to instead talk about whatever he wanted<\/a>. For instance, Woodward asked him what he was thinking at the Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un, and Trump said there<\/a> were a lot of cameras there. Woodward pleaded repeatedly that this would be for \u201cthe serious history,\u201d but Trump was unmoved. \u201cHe was on his track and he would stay there,\u201d Woodward writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall effect is that Trump hijacks the book as soon as he starts talking. As a result, much of the book\u2019s second half is an authentic portrait of what it\u2019s like to have a rolling, months-long conversation with Donald Trump: scattershot, tedious, frustrating, and occasionally outrageous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n


https:\/\/www.vox.com\/21429229\/woodward-rage-trump-coronavirus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In early February, Trump privately told Woodward that the new coronavirus was \u201cmore deadly\u201d than the flu, and that it \u201cgoes through air\u201d \u2014 as he was publicly suggesting that the virus was similar to the flu. Then, as the virus ravaged New York City in mid-March, Trump told Woodward that he had wanted to \u201cplay it down.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Woodward rose to fame as half of the Washington Post\u2019s \u201cWoodward and Bernstein\u201d reporting duo that helped expose the Nixon administration\u2019s Watergate cover-up \u2014 triggering a scandal that led to Nixon\u2019s resignation. But in recent decades, Woodward\u2019s main reporting interest has been using his Washington connections to report and write books about what\u2019s going on in the highest levels of the US government, especially the presidency. (He has written two books on the Clinton administration, four on the George W. Bush administration, two on the Obama administration, and now two on Trump.)
\nThe books have tried to put readers \u201cin the room,\u201d depicting what happens behind closed doors. To do that, Woodward relies on the cooperation and anonymized accounts of top-level government officials. He then presents a narrative, based on sources and sometimes documents, in an omniscient style, but largely focused on certain characters.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“his critics have long argued that his accounts, far from being neutral, are heavily skewed toward his major sources\u2019 points of view and priorities, and portray those who didn\u2019t talk as ciphers or villains. The reality is a bit more nuanced (talking a lot doesn\u2019t guarantee you a good portrayal, as Trump found here), but his readers are absolutely getting a particular version of what happened, as told by particular people.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“On February 7, Trump called Woodward and surprisingly brought up the coronavirus when there were few confirmed cases in the US, and when impeachment had been dominating the news. Trump opened by saying that there was \u201ca little bit of an interesting setback with the virus going on in China,\u201d and that he\u2019d spoken with President Xi Jinping the previous night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking mostly about the virus, and I think he\u2019s gonna have it in good shape, but it\u2019s a very tricky situation,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt goes through air, Bob, that\u2019s always tougher than the touch. … You just breathe the air and that\u2019s how it\u2019s passed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThat\u2019s a very tricky one. That\u2019s a very delicate one. It\u2019s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.\u201d Apparently speaking about mortality rates, he says: \u201cThis is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent. You know? So, this is deadly stuff.\u201d However, he went on to say that he thinks the Chinese have it under control, and that \u201cI think that that goes away in two months with the heat,\u201d because \u201cas it gets hotter that tends to kill the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, and notably early, Trump is saying (in private) both that the virus can spread through the air and that it\u2019s very deadly and dangerous. This is quite different from what he was saying in public. In the coming weeks, Trump would publicly say the virus was similar to the flu, and would argue that mortality rates wouldn\u2019t be so high.<\/p>\n

Then, in another conversation with Woodward on March 19 \u2014 once New York City was reeling from the virus, the country had begun to shut down, and Trump\u2019s public commentary had become more pessimistic \u2014 Woodward asked Trump when his thinking on the seriousness of the threat had changed. \u201cI wanted to always play it down,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI still like playing it down, because I don\u2019t want to create a panic.\u201d” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s also possible that Trump was misled by the Washington conventional wisdom that people who talk to Woodward get rosier portrayals in his books. There\u2019s some truth to that, but the problem is that Trump didn\u2019t really cooperate in the way Woodward prefers \u2014 by walking through his decisions and mentality at key moments in an orderly way, to provide building blocks for the book\u2019s narrative.
\nInstead, Trump repeatedly ignored Woodward\u2019s specific questions to instead talk about whatever he wanted. For instance, Woodward asked him what he was thinking at the Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un, and Trump said there were a lot of cameras there. Woodward pleaded repeatedly that this would be for \u201cthe serious history,\u201d but Trump was unmoved. \u201cHe was on his track and he would stay there,\u201d Woodward writes.<\/p>\n

The overall effect is that Trump hijacks the book as soon as he starts talking. As a result, much of the book\u2019s second half is an authentic portrait of what it\u2019s like to have a rolling, months-long conversation with Donald Trump: scattershot, tedious, frustrating, and occasionally outrageous.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[221,170],"class_list":["post-3474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-donald-trump","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3475,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3474\/revisions\/3475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}