"Bob Woodward is leaving the regular payroll of the Washington Post, along with about 100 other Posties who are accepting the paper’s generous early retirement package.

"For the Post’s legendary investigative reporter, however, the buyout may not exactly yield a windfall, largely because he has been drawing a salary of $10,000 for the past couple of years.

"The buyout gives the most senior Post staffers an exit payment of two times their final salary. On that basis, Woodward would get a check for $20,000, or enough for a 2008 Chrysler Sebring. He is 65 and started at the Post in 1971.

"Yet there’s an interesting wrinkle in Woodward’s package: That $10,000 salary? It represents a voluntary pay cut that took effect in mid-2006. Prior to that, Woodward earned a salary commensurate with his title as a Post assistant managing editor, about $180,000. If his exit payment is calculated on that basis, he’d get $360,000 via the buyout.

"The biz people at the paper are now trying to figure out whether to give Woodward the small payout or the large payout." [WCP]

PHEW Bob Woodward will publish his fourth book on George Bush this year. Good, because otherwise Bush's legacy would be indiscernible. [E&P]

Have you read George Tenet's new book, "At The Center Of The Storm" yet? Christopher Hitchens has, and he's already called Tenet a "portentous, self-justifying disgrace."

And now, Bob Woodward has, and it seems that his number one objection is Tenet's failure to enlist Woodward's help in crafting his autobiography.

In Sunday’s Washington Post (May 6), Bob Woodward penned a lengthy appraisal of George Tenet’s book, “At The Center Of The Storm,” about his tenure as George Bush’s CIA director. But it’s not really a review of the Tenet book; it’s more like an explanation of how Tenet could have been a better intelligence chief and written a better memoir if only he had listened to Bob Woodward…

Naturally, that's just the beginning.

CONTINUED »

When Christopher Hitchens calls your book a disgrace, it probably means you're onto something.

Either that, or you really, really screwed up.

In the case of former CIA director (and current Georgetown professor/author) George Tenet, it seems to be a case of the latter.

Tenet, though best known for his lengthy tenure as the head of the CIA, will forever be remembered for not preventing September 11th, for personally attesting to the validity of intelligence reports accusing Saddam Hussein of harboring WMD, and for his well-documented** assurances—to President George W. Bush—that the case against Saddam would be a "slam dunk."

And while we don't find ourselves agreeing with Christopher Hitchens very often (mainly due to his propensity for brash, offensive and generally unsubstantiated shitshow rants) today we'd like to applaud his efforts, and praise him for handing Tenet the literary equivalent of an "old school bitch-slapping." And alhough not all of Hitchen's adversaries are deserving of his wrath, Tenet certainly has a lot to answer to in today's Slate manifesto.

CONTINUED »

• Retired NFL star Tiki Barber to join NBC's Today Show; maybe this will help them "tackle" the male thirty-something market.

• In sad news for publishing moguls (and Anna Wintour's assistants) magazine circulations were way down in the second half of 2006.

• With the help of Walter Pincus, Tim Russert and Bob Woodward's testimonies, the Scooter Libby trial is now expected to replace Michael's as the newest hotspot for media elite.

• MTV job cuts have decimated its five business units. Still intact: those idiots on The Real World.

• After thinking about it for a week or two, Times' publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has decided he actually does care whether or not the NYT is still in print five years from now.

• Ron Goldman's family continues to fight for the $40 million O.J. still owes them for "that whole murder thing." Related: USA Today can't write a lied to save its life.

Oh, Bob. We've all read The President's Men, fantasized about you (and by "you" we clearly mean Robert Redford's much-more-handsome version of you) sweeping us off our feet, and reminding us that journalistic integrity—like chivalry—is not completely dead.

That's why we love it when you kick off your shoes, muss up you hair, and let us in on those little idiosyncrasies that make you, well, you. Like here, at this informal Q&A chat:

Attendees—including Woodward tablemates AOL's Jim Kimsey and lawyer Sanford Ain—learned what Woodward does for fun (re-reading the Senate Watergate Report and listening to Nixon tapes in the car), where Woodward would have dropped his next Watergate revelation (a University of Texas conference that was canceled due to an ice storm), and what Woodward’s next book won’t be about (Watergate).

We can already picture it: Bob Woodward/Robert Redford, cruising around town in his black Escalade, top down, windows up, reddish-blond hair blowing in the breeze, with the Richard Millhouse Nixon tapes blasting just as loudly as his car speakers will allow…Priceless.

And just when we thought Woodward Uncut can't possibly get any better? It does!

Woodward recalled a time when Rumsfeld aides called him indignantly regarding comparisons between their boss and Vietnam War architect Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. “Can you imagine how McNamara feels?” Woodward retorted.

BAM! Take that, Rummy. No wonder you reportedly left your most recent job off of your newly leaked resumé.

• Time Inc. spending lots of cash to find out how not to spend lots of cash.

• FHM may be closing, but lucky you, publisher Emap is keeping the website around!

• Former CNN chief Eason Jordan puts faith, future in blogging about Iraq.

• Who wants to work for curmudgeon Bob Woodward? Hundreds and hundreds of qualified journalists, it seems.

• People, Hello fight over Brangelina exclusive.

• Gawker holiday party at the same place it hates on.

• LAT recycles quotes, shocks few.

• Unauthorized biographer devil Kitty Kelly selects Oprah as her next target.

• AOL unloads 450 employees.

Want to be Bob Woodward's new gopher? All it takes is "five to eight years experience in journalism, books, or in-depth research and writing." That is: college grads, don't apply. The Watergate maestro is looking for a new lacky, and his current one is beginning the candidate hunt. But just so there's no confusion, the chosen one can look forward to two years of flipping through a Rolodex, marking calendars, grabbing coffee, unjamming the fax, and being owned.

You will research, report, write and edit. You will also handle administrative matters — transcribing interview tapes, helping him keep track of his calendar and requests, and running his small office" out of his Washington, DC home.

Primarily, you will work on whatever major project Bob undertakes next, be it another book, articles for The Washington Post, etc. Most of the time you will be working on several things at once, and sometimes these 'secondary assignments' can take on a life of their own. [...]

First, think about whether you really and truly meet the description of who we are looking for. If you haven’t worked in journalism before or haven’t been a writer, or if you’re really just beginning your career, this probably is not the job for you—at least not yet.

Also, if you're not comfortable with your title being "Bitch," you probably shouldn't apply. For Janice Min, either.

In what is perhaps the first Jon Friedman column we've read in its entirety since finding out he files multiple times per week, the Marketwatch scribe today delivers an eighth grade book review of author Alicia Shepard's new book Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate. Which is about, uh, well you can figure that out. Pleased overall with Shepard's book, he was most pleased by:

Shepard showed great restraint, particularly in writing about Woodward and Bernstein's divorces. Less responsible journalists would've employed the style of a shrill, breathless gossip-monger.

Oh thank god we disavow any attempts to employ the word "journalist" around these parts. We'd hate to appear irresponsible.

An eagle-eyed reader has alerted us that Jim Nelson might have had his GQ staff working a little too hard to put together December's "Men of the Year" list — and not paying much attention to what's between November's covers.

(Click image for larger version in pop-up window)

The magazine's first stutter comes in a spread on Bob Woodward, where Woodward's former Washington Post editor and Watergate scandal cohort Ben Bradlee is pictured. Except Ben Bradlee doesn't get the proper name check: the caption misspells his ID. And while we'll be the first to own up to our gratuitous errors, the mispelling gives Ben the name Ed Bradlee, a mixup of oversight and unfortunate timing.

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Next up is the blurb on Joe Namath. As any casual sports fan knows, Joe shaved off his famous Fu Manchu moustache for $15,000 in a commercial for Remington electric shavers. GQ, meanwhile, calls it a handlebar moustache.

At least GQ saved its ass by naming Leo DiCaprio one of its Men of the Year. You know, because he's done so much this year to be proud of. Namely, banging a Israeli model.

There has been so much sudden hype over Bob Woodward's latest novel The State of Denial that we don't even know where to start. You know Woodward "scooped" the Washington Post by saving his juicy journalistic bits for his book, instead of giving them up to his paper. (Happens every time.) On top of that, he didn't even give WaPo a heads up that the book was being released early, and the New York Times' Kit Seelye jumped on the story last Friday.

And now today, we have David Carr's analysis, which is quite intriguing and explanatory. Not only is his piece totally dumbed down, but the journalist/blogger also insists on twice comparing the world of books to the world of blogs.

The actual journalistic accomplishment in “State of Denial” is less than grand. It took him three books to arrive at a conclusion thousands of basement-bound bloggers suggested years ago: that the Bush administration is composed of people who like war, don’t seem to be very good at it and have been known to turn the guns on each other.

Basement-bound? What the? Oh, whatever. We're sure Carr has some warpped sense of how bloggers live (dark, hermit-like Star Trek and computer locked in a basement) because of people like Matt Drudge and Pete Rojas. But he doesn't stop the blog comparisons there. Carr goes on to pull a quote from Simon & Schuster's publisher, who just can't believe that in a world of random 20-somethings throwing their opinions on the Internet that people even read books anymore.

It is interesting to me that in an age of blogs, Webs and texting that a book, something which is essentially a tortoise, very quaint in its own way, can carry the most immediacy.”

And so the circle of media life continues, with the blogs jumping on the hype of books, forcing the newspapers to work even harder to break news — and then spreading the news once it's broken with a bit of cheeky commentary. Until tomorrow when we all drop this half-witted political conversation, and go back to the things people actually care about: more Photoshopped photos of Lindsay Lohan's cooter.

A Reporter Who Scoops His Own Paper [David Carr, New York Times]

From today's Washington Post:

Vanity Fair is reporting that former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee says it is reasonable to assume former State Department official Richard L. Armitage is likely the source who revealed CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward.

And in other news, our sister's cousin is reporting that her former roommate says it is reasonable to assume her landlord is likely the source who revealed the neighbor's identity to police.

Magazine: Bradlee Knows Woodward's Source on Plame [Jim VandeHei, WaPo]

Do Vanity Fair reporters have some kind of truth serum for their interview subjects? It seems as though people are always admitting things like eating disorders or revealing their sources in huge government scandals, and then, suddenly, they never said any of these things.

First it was Lindsay Lohan's "I never said I had an eating disorder." Now we have Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee claiming that "he doesn't remember" telling the mag that former State Department official Richard L. Armitage is the likely source who named Valerie Plame to Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward.

In an article to be published in the magazine today, Bradlee is quoted as saying: "That Armitage is the likely source is a fair assumption." Armitage was deputy secretary of state in President Bush's first term.

This month's VF "officially" hits newsstands today, and the tell-all issue also features Teri Hatcher's confession that she was molested as a child. And a bunch of other stuff that nobody remembers ever saying.

Magazine: Bradlee Knows Woodward's Source on Plame [Jim VandeHei, Washington Post]

• Bob Woodward says his source was a "he," and yet some media crits are so quick to rule out Condi Rice. [E&P]

• Magazines might ask the tough questions, but they also answer them. [WaPo]

• Yeah, yeah, telecom company One.Tel's crash and burn cost News Corp. millions. But more importantly: Lachlan Murdoch looks tanned and relaxed. [Aust. BC]

• Blogs with budgets scare us, especially since our writers stopped accepting payment in the form of Starbucks cards. [NY Sun]

• CNN explains away the 'X' on Dick Cheney head as a technical glitch and still – shockingly – Matt Drudge won't tell both sides of the story. [TVNewser]

• Former New York Times scribe Ben Franklin has passed away, and we're not even going to make a pot shot about being electrocuted. [NYT]

• Whether 2005 was a banner year or dismal year for magazine ad sales has yet to be determined. [MIN]

• Because he always knows what's right, Carl Icahn thinks Time Warner's stock would be trading much higher if his decisions were put into place. Namely, breaking up Time Warner. [Business Week]

• During this morning's online chat, WaPo exec editor Leo Downie Jr. says he doesn't think Bob Woodward should resign — though he does believe he should've shut up on TV. [WaPo]

• At this point we really don't need Wenner Media "insiders" to tell us that Jann Wenner and Kent Brownridge haven't been getting along of late, especially since Gary Armstrong in marketing refused to go to alcohol rehab. [WWD & Lowdown]

• British publisher Emap is said to be mulling the sale of its American FHM — and Hearst looks interested, even after shuttering the never-seen Bullet. [NYP]

• Jeff Zucker is tired of blogs receiving so much attention. All the buzz that My Name Is Earl has received, however, he's totally cool with. [Daily Northwestern]

• Since he's on the way out anyhow, we're applauding Ted Koppel's public lashing of President Bush. "One fiasco after another" is how he tells it — just like ABC News! [NYP]

• Colleen Curtis is leaving the Cooke jar at the Daily News to become a supervising editor at Good Morning America, where she's expected to feed us reports on exec producer Ben Sherwood's rage levels. [NYP]

• Good news: Dick Cheney isn't Bob Woodward's source. Bad news: Dick Cheney is still your vice president. [AP]