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In Fact


HOLY HYPE!

Official Washington came to a halt recently when word slipped out that a new Bob Woodward book on Bill Clinton and Bob Dole was about to be published -- with much-hyped advance excerpts in The Washington Post and Newsweek. A breathless capital wondered: What did Woodward have? Then...thud. His Post exposé reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton, guided by a New Age author, held an imaginary conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt -- a fact the First Lady had mentioned in her column. Much more important is Woodward's portrayal of how Clinton used "soft money" contributions to skirt campaign spending limits.

As for Dole, the big news is...he wants a prominent, respected figure as his running mate. Stop the presses! The opposite would have been news ("Dole Says Anybody O.K. for Veep"). A front-page Post story about Woodward's book trumpeted such "disclosures" as: (1) Dole wants Colin Powell to be on the ticket and (2) Dole wants a running mate who will not anger the far right. It takes an investigative reporter to figure this out? The Post's treatment of Woodward's "revelations" tells us more about the Post than it does about the two candidates.


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