Padding the Truth? Libby Trial Raises Questions About Reporters' Note Taking Abilities

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WASHINGTON Write this down: Your notes are not as reliable as you think.

That is true whether they are scrawled in the margins of a business meeting agenda, typed on a secretary's laptop, scribbled on a patient's chart or carefully recorded from a lecture hall blackboard.

And, as the monthlong trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has shown, they are no more reliable if the notes belong to FBI agents, journalists or White House aides.

That is a somewhat disconcerting thought. People are charged, front-page articles are written and public policies are decided in part based on those notes. If they are flawed, whose can be believed?

<snip>

One of the few reporters whose notes were not dissected in the Libby trial was Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. He spoke confidently about what he learned about Plame and when he learned it.

He had taped his interview.

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