Bob Woodward Booed, Slammed Online For Talk With Authors of #MeToo Book: ‘So Clueless’
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Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward was heavily criticized on Wednesday night for how he handled a discussion with two reporters over their book on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct.
Woodward spoke to New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor at a Washington D.C. event that gravitated around She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. The book breaks down the investigative reporting into Weinstein’s actions throughout the years, and it also covers how the Hollywood mogul’s downfall became the trigger for the #MeToo movement.
Reporters and audience members booed Woodward’s exchange with Twohey and Kantor, accusing him of repeatedly interrupting them to interject his own thoughts. Many of Woodward’s critics took issue with his questions about whether Weinstein’s actions were about sex rather than him asserting power and control over women.
Jodi Kantor: This book is an x-ray into power.
Bob Woodward: But it’s also about sex?
Audience (loudly): No
— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) October 2, 2019
Tomorrow there will be stories about how horribly Bob Woodward bombed this discussion. Repeatedly asked why Harvey Weinstein did what he did. The authors responded, multiple times: power. He accused them of dodging the question. People in the crowd booing. https://t.co/jrrtHjLAsc
— J. David McSwane (@davidmcswane) October 2, 2019
Every woman in the audience was holding their breathe during long portions of this conversation. It’s like the room will collectively exhale once Woodward stops talking. https://t.co/pFhGeOhQeH
— Kainaz Amaria (@kainazamaria) October 3, 2019
Now Woodward is repeatedly trying to get these women to admit that there is something sexually wrong with Weinstein and that’s why he’s doing this, and they keep telling him it’s about power, not about sex. But we are going on 10 minutes on this question, and he cannot get it.
— Jaime Santos (@Jaime_ASantos) October 2, 2019
Having a really fun time listening to Bob Woodward repeatedly interrupt and badger Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey on why Weinstein did what he did & then charging them with purposely “dodging” the question to repeated boos, audience outbursts, and people walking out ?
— Anna Kain (@annaleekain) October 2, 2019
Ouch @realBobWoodward is blowing this interview with @mega2e and @jodikantor on their book “She Said.” Interruptive, not focused on the women who were victimized by Harvey Weinstein and weirdly obsessed with that creep, it’s a exercise in how not to interview. The crowd no like. pic.twitter.com/sEvEZPOlmG
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) October 3, 2019
It concerns me that @realBobWoodward is so clueless to the reaction of his push for @mega2e and @jodikantor to speculate on #HarveyWeinsteins desire for “sex”. He isn’t hearing them say this is about power, not sex. The audience is over him.
— Hilary Rosen (@hilaryr) October 2, 2019
Robyn Swirling, founder of Works in Progress, offered a particularly extensive Twitter thread about Woodward’s performance
Tonight, with last minute availability, I went to see Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey speak at @SixthandI about their book, She Said. I was, honestly, nervous. For the last year, since Kavanaugh, my PTSD has been pretty bad. Discussions of sexual violence are trickier for me now.
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) October 3, 2019
Turns out, what I really needed to worry about was @realBobWoodward‘s aggressive and uninformed questioning. Woodward repeatedly interrupted @jodikantor and @mega2e. During Megan’s intro, he interrupted her to blow past consent and identify some folks in the audience.
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) October 3, 2019
Next, @realBobWoodward, who had < 1 hour to ask *any* question he could possibly want about how these two impressive af reporters built this story and started the press side of the #metoo movement, asked “did you find any women who made up allegations? That’s very important.”
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) October 3, 2019
Not even two minutes after being heckled to stop interrupting them, Woodward did it again.
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) October 3, 2019
This went on for more than 10 minutes. Showing exactly why he was the wrong person to have any sort of public (or private) discussion about #metoo, @realBobWoodward said “So it’s about power? It’s about sex also though, isn’t it?”
The audience booed.
— Robyn Swirling (@RSwirling) October 3, 2019
New York Post reached out to Woodward for comment on his appearance, and he defended himself by saying “All I did was praise the book as a real handbook to investigative reporting and actually a masterpiece, and I asked questions about it.”
