Woodward Scooped on Own Book

Mike Boyer observes, “I can only imagine that there is a cold chill in the air over at the WaPo newsroom this afternoon. After being scooped once again on a story about one of its own scribes, the Post is scrambling to catch up with the New York Times, which this morning outed the most important revelations of Bob Woodward’s new book, State of Denial.”

It’s an interesting quandry that newspapers find themselves in when their correspondents sign book contracts. The publishers quite naturally expect to control the timing of information release, which prevents the reporter-authors from handing their papers an automatic scoop. The result, frequently, is that someone under no obligation to the publisher beats them to the punch.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.