Bob Woodward's reporting has been questioned before. | REUTERS 6 Bob Woodward controversies

With a New York magazine article’s revelation Sunday that legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee once expressed “fear in my soul” that Bob Woodward had embellished elements of his reporting in the Watergate scandal, POLITICO has put together a list of six occasions where critics have questioned Woodward’s reporting:

1. The potted plant to signal “Deep Throat”


Adrian Havill, author of “Deep Truth: The Lives of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein,” wrote in the book that Woodward’s claim of signaling his “Deep Throat” source for meetings using a flowerpot on his balcony “does strain credulity,” since Woodward’s balcony faced an inner courtyard and isn’t visible from a nearby alleyway.

( PHOTOS: The Watergate story)

Woodward later claimed in the Sydney Morning Herald that the courtyard behind his apartment building had not yet been closed off at the time and that his balcony could be seen from “dozens of apartments or offices,” speculating even that the FBI had “surveillance or listening posts nearby,” though he admits he is not sure how Mark Felt — later unmasked as “Deep Throat” — monitored the flowerpot.

(Also on POLITICO: New York Magazine writer calls out Bob Woodward)

2. CIA Director William Casey’s deathbed scene

Woodward claimed in his book “Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987” that Casey admitted on his deathbed that he had known about the diversion of Iran arms sale money to the Contras.

But Casey’s daughter, Bernadette Casey Smith, claimed that Woodward “never got the deathbed confession,” according to the Houston Chronicle. In addition, Kevin Shipp, a member of Casey’s security detail, asserted in a self-published memoir that none of the agents standing guard over the Casey allowed Woodward into his hospital room at Georgetown University Hospital, and that in any case the former CIA director was not able to talk at the time Woodward cited.

In his defense, Woodward quotes William Donnelly, head of CIA administration, who said “Woodward probably found a way to sneak in,” and argues that the guards weren’t there 24/7 at the time.

3. Tenet’s WMD “slam dunk” quote

In his 2004 book “Plan of Attack,” Woodward claims that CIA Director George Tenet said that there was a “slam dunk case” that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

However, Tenet claimed that his words were taken out of context and that he was being set up as a scapegoat for the failures of the Iraq War. In a “ 60 Minutes” interview, Tenet said that he had said “slam dunk” to suggest it would be easy to build a public case for the war.

4. Did Justice William J. Brennan Jr. vote against his judgment to win favor?

In Woodward’s 1979 book “The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court,” Justice William J. Brennan Jr. is alleged to have voted against his own personal judgment in the case Moore v. Illinois in order to avoid offending Justice Harry A. Blackmun. According to Woodward and co-author Scott Armstrong, Brennan had realized his initial vote was incorrect but declined to change it in order to avoid pushing Blackmun’s vote away on abortion and obscenity cases.

Anthony Lewis challenged this account in the New York Review of Books, saying that the charge was leveled “without serious evidence” and that the story “leaves doubts not only about the authors’ understanding but about their scrupulousness.”

Lewis said in a follow-up that he had reached all 30 law clerks that were at the Supreme Court in the 1971 term.

“Their verdict on the story told by Woodward and Armstrong was overwhelmingly negative. The prevailing tone of their comments was disbelief, verging on contempt. The clerks who had personally worked on the case or had any direct knowledge of it all flatly rejected the story,” Lewis claimed.

5. Reagan recovery scene

In “Veil,” Woodward also describes Ronald Reagan’s recovery from the 1981 attempt on his life as quite poor. He reports on a scene in which Reagan collapses into a chair. Woodward further writes that in the days after his release from the hospital, Reagan could “concentrate for only a few minutes at a time” and in the following days would only be able to “remain attentive only an hour or so a day.”

Reagan’s physician, Dr. Daniel Ruge, disputed this portrayal, telling the AP that “his recovery was superb … I never saw anything like that [description in the book] … it’s certainly news to me and I was there all the time.”

6. John Belushi portrayal in “Wired”

Close confidants of Belushi expressed outrage at the way the comedian was portrayed in Woodward’s biography “Wired,” alleging that some of the scenes were fabricated.

“There were certainly things that he just got patently wrong. He painted a portrait of John that was really inaccurate — certain stories in there that just weren’t true and never happened,” said Dan Akroyd, a fellow Blues Brother and close friend, in the book “Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live.”

Akroyd did not specify which incidents in particular were made up.