From “We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence” by David Dark
In September 2020 Bob Woodward made headlines when he shared recordings of Donald Trump recognizing aloud in February the deadly threat the coronavirus posed. (“This is deadly stuff’) and describing in March his decision to publicly deny the threat (“I wanted to always play it down”). The decision to keep the country in the dark to his own lonely advantage instead of taking decisive, but politically unpopular, action was roundly condemned. But what of Bob Woodward? What did he owe his fellow Americans when he heard and recorded the president – our president – speaking these words early that spring?
Like John Bolton, he had a book coming out. The common obligations of decency don’t stop at the doorstep of power and fame. In deference to his own perceived personal advantage, Bob Woodward declined to pull the fire alarm.