Bob Woodward: Been a hack for a while

I had cast recent events as an unfortunate late blemish on Woodward's career in this post, but I see in this post by Richard, the Peking Duck, that he has been a hack for much longer than that:

I've distrusted him for years now, ever since I read his obviously made-up story of an interview with William Casey right before he died. And then there's the way he always gets himself in the limelight just as he has a new book coming out. Today's news could be the nail in his coffin. The story of his newly discovered role in Plamegate is being blogged to death everywhere so I won't reiterate it. Suffice it to say he is shilling for the Bush administration and he can never be trusted again.

Let's not forget that Woodward has been accused of lying, sensationalizing and witholding news many times in the past.

Woodward's dual role as newspaper journalist and book author has opened him up to occasional criticism for sitting on information for publication in a book, rather than presenting it sooner when it might affect the events at hand. In The Commanders (1991), for instance, he indicated that Colin Powell had opposed Operation Desert Storm, yet Woodward did not publish this fact before Congress voted on a war resolution, when it may have made a difference. And in Veil he indicates William Casey personally knew of arms sales to the contras but he did not reveal this until after the Congressional investigation.