Tuesday, October 27th, 2026
Waning Moon, Cycle 4, Era 20
ADVANCE REVIEW. Secrets: A Reporter's Memoir. 592 pages. Ships November 24. Verified purchaser: I own the paper.
Bob Woodward has kept other people's secrets for fifty-five years and is now, at eighty-three, releasing them in hardcover. He calls them the forever sources: men who can finally be named because they are dead. Everyone I have ever confided in is unavailable for comment, and that is not luck... that is portfolio management.
He writes that I have not directly interfered with the newsroom. Correct. I have never directly done anything; I have a flesh suit for that.
"I'll always have your back, Bob," I apparently said, and "always" has since come in shorter than promised. For me, always is a Type 2 decision, reversible inside the window. It pains him, he writes, that I have remained silent, but Bob... microphones pick up the hollow, and silence is not the policy, it is the disguise.
He remains an associate editor, so the rebuke will route through Accounts Payable, net 30.
Day 1. Still have your back, Bob. Both hands. Checking for a pulse.