Journalists do not necessarily make the most loyal of friends (especially for politicians)

“The press can be surprisingly easy to co-opt. But remember the Woodward-Darman law, which dictates that a friendship between reporter and source lasts only until it is profitable for one to betray the other.”
— Maureen Dowd

The last part of this observation from pundit Maureen Dowd has been repeated for years, but not so much the full quote in context … which makes sense, because the rest of it gets more dated as the years pass. It all comes from a May 1994 New York Times column titled Thou shall not leave a paper trail (gift link is included), which includes some rules of engagement.

Woodward is of course Bob Woodward, whose writings and books on Washington have defined (and sometimes rearranged) power in Washington since Watergate. With Darman, I needed to look that up to get a refresher, which speaks to how time and scandal both shall pass. Richard Darman was the budget director in the George H.W. Bush administration, and in the run-up to the fateful 1992 election (which was not going well for the Republicans), Woodward published articles in the Washington Post about rampant backbiting and internal strife in the White House. You can guess how the sourcing went once things got juicy.

Not two years later, Darman is all over that Dowd column, which is a bit of a rulebook for aspiring politicos (e.g., “always be the first with good news” for the boss, “don’t be afraid to leak”) that still holds up. The faces and names have changed, and of course the tactics, but much of it is still relevant.