Zooey Calender

Zooey Calender is a political science major at Boston University, who is also minoring in communications.

I don't hobnob with Bob Woodward or his ilk, and I mostly spend time with journalists and operatives with much less clout. What I've noticed is that there is this weird phenomenon in DC, where some political journalists like to consider themselves both closet strategists and independent truth-tellers without an ax to grind.

Jay has a superb piece on how Murray Waas is a much more important journalist than Bob Woodward. Rosen even goes so far as to dance around the claim that Woodward isn't really a journalist anymore, but an insider. What Murray Waas does strikes me as structurally different; Waas pores through documents, learns everything there is to know, and works sources to find out how decisions are made. And Murray Waas is relentless, and he's focused on the big picture.

Progresssive bloggers want a redible media. To us, Bob Woodward is not credible, because his sympathies seem to lie with insiders rather than the public. Murray Waas represents the public.