A writer working with John Belushi's widow on a biography of Belushi says he can demonstrate that reporting by the legendary Bob Woodward of The Washington Post might get the facts right, but it distorts their meaning.
"How accurate is his reporting? Does he deserve his legendary status? I believe I can offer some interesting answers to those questions," Tanner Colby writes in Slate. Colby says his work on the new Belushi biography put him in the position of essentially re-reporting Woodward's 1984 book Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi.
"Over the course of a year, page by page, source by source, I re-reported and rewrote one of Bob Woodward’s books. As far as I know, it’s the only time that’s ever been done," Colby writes. And what he found was, "There’s never a smoking gun like an outright falsehood or a brazen ethical breach. And yet, in the final product, a lot of what Woodward writes comes off as being not quite right—some of it to the point where it can feel quite wrong."
Here's one example. In the cafeteria scene in Animal House, Belushi improvised his part, which was done in one take, Colby writes. Belushi's co-star James Widdoes described the scene this way to Colby:
One of the things that was so spectacular to watch during the filming was the incredible connection that [Belushi] and [the film's director John] Landis had. During the scene on the cafeteria line, Landis was talking to Belushi all the way through it, and Belushi was just taking it one step further. What started out as Landis saying, “Okay, now grab the sandwich,” became, in John’s hands, taking the sandwich, squeezing and bending it until it popped out of the cellophane, sucking it into his mouth, and then putting half the sandwich back. He would just go a little further each time.
Others found Belushi's performance remarkable. But here, says, Colby, is how Woodward described it:
Landis quickly discovered that John could be lazy and undisciplined. They were rehearsing a cafeteria scene, a perfect vehicle to set up Bluto’s insatiable cravings. Landis wanted John to walk down the cafeteria line and load his tray until it was a physical burden. As the camera started, Landis stood to one side shouting: “Take that! Put that in your pocket! Pile that on the tray! Eat that now, right there!”
"The implication," writes Colby, "is that Belushi was so unfocused and unprepared that he couldn’t make it through the scene without the director beside him telling him what to do, which is not what took place." He cites other similar examples in which the details are correct, but the interpretation, in his view, is way off track. In each case, he says, "Woodward’s account is not wrong. It’s just … wrong."
I'm not suggesting that Colby is right about all of this. As he himself points out, "People’s memories change. Stories evolve over 20 years of telling." But his piece raises some fascinating and important questions not just about Woodward, but about journalism. It's unlikely that anyone will be able to do this kind of dissection of Woodward's other books, most of which are heavily based on anonymous sources, secret documents, and confidential interviews.
Take a look at Colby's piece and see what you think.
-Paul Raeburn
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