Post reporters unload on Woodward

Think I was a bit harsh on Bob? Not according to hundreds of WaPo readers. Via E&P:

Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from readers since yesterday's revelations about Bob Woodward's involvement in the Valerie Plame case, and none of them are positive.

"I am getting a lot of reaction and, from readers, it is all bad," Howell told E&P today, referring to the fallout from Woodward's disclosure that he spoke to a confidential White House source about Plame in 2003. "We are being barraged with calls. They think it was wrong for him not to tell his editors and wrong for the Post not to tell readers."

The ombudsman also pointed out that the e-mails "are all very different. I have not seen [an organized] campaign."

And not according to his colleagues. Via mediabistro:

Robert E. Pierre: ... It does look awful and it impacts on the credibility that each of us individually, and collectively, have as we make our case to people about why they should trust us. I certainly understand that national security and the presidency and the Supreme Court are murky topics that sometimes will require us to make deals with people to get information. But I think this whole affair of journalists and politicians using anonymity to trade information and then cast themselves as protectors of the common good stinks.

And this:

Andy Mosher: That low hum we all hear is James Madison spinning in his grave.

But the sad/amusing part of the whole exchange is that several reporters seem to be more outraged about the leaking of their comments/gossip -- that is, about the fair play of turnabout -- than they are about the damage to the reputation wayward Woodward hath wrought.

On which side of the Titanic's foredeck would you like to lay out your deck chairs, kids?