I'm really confused as to why so many people are so confident that Bob Woodward releasing the Trump tape in March would have had some kind of meaningful effect on the quality of the US coronavirus response
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It's hard for us to know now whether or not releasing this information publicly would have made a difference, and it would have been even harder for him to know then. But given the stakes and the uncertainty, Zeynep's point about his moral responsibility seems *more* compelling.
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This is really the important point. There is a moral aspect to journalism that is unfashionable to acknowledge. There is a duty to truth and a duty to your community and nation.
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In defense of Woodward, his only source for the information was a) an idiot who b) lies all the time. *Now* we know Trump was downplaying the virus, and it was airborne. But for all Woodward knew in Feb, Trump was just confused/lying/etc.
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Not a single scientific body anywhere was saying it was spreading through the air until mid-March, and even then it was preliminary.
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He could’ve sold it to Vanity Fair for $5/word.
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I don't see how releasing that one bit would harm book sales, possibly the opposite. Yet everyone seems to assume that's why he held it back.
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Presumably there were ground rules, including the promise that the interviews were for a book to be published later, not for contemporary news stories. The political impact is far greater now than it would have been in March. And plenty of reporting showed up Trump’s virus lies.
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I am wondering the same thing. He should have released the scoop to Washington Post. He is on their payroll, after all.
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