On the October 2 broadcast of ABC's Good Morning America, anchor Christopher Cuomo failed to challenge White House press secretary Tony Snow's baseless claim that Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward did not rely upon “key players” within the Bush administration in reporting and writing his book State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (Simon & Schuster, October 2006), which portrays President Bush as presenting to the public a misleadingly upbeat assessment of progress in Iraq. When Cuomo asked Snow whether the president is “in a 'state of denial' about Iraq,” Snow asserted that Woodward's sources for the book “obviously weren't key players,” likening them to “people sitting on the outside of the room speculating about what's going on on the inside.” In fact, Woodward's sources for the book reportedly include Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, retired U.S. Army Gen. Jay Garner, the former head of reconstruction in Iraq, and former White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., among others. Further, the White House cooperated with Woodward while he was writing his two previous books, Bush at War (Simon & Schuster, November 2002) and Plan of Attack (Simon & Schuster, April 2004). Woodward interviewed Bush for both. In Post articles based on State of Denial that were published October 1 and October 2, Woodward wrote that he conducted interviews with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Card, and other members of the administration while preparing to write the book. In addition, in its October 2 edition, the Post published a source note for State of Denial that read:

State of Denial is based on interviews with President Bush's national security team, their deputies, and other senior and key players in the administration responsible for the military, the diplomacy, and the intelligence on the war in Iraq. Most of the interviews were conducted on background, meaning that the information provided could be used but the sources would not be identified by name in the book. When thoughts, conclusions and feelings are attributed to a participant, they were obtained from that person directly, from the written record or from a colleague whom the person told.

From the October 2 broadcast of ABC's Good Morning America:

CUOMO: Bob Woodward's book, State of Denial -- some very shocking allegations about the administration in this book. He's on 60 Minutes last night. Let's take a quick listen to what he said.

WOODWARD [video clip]: My work on this leads to lots of people who spend hours, days with the president, and in most cases, they are my best sources. And there is a concern that we need to face realism, not being the voice that says, “Oh, no, everything's fine,” when it's not.

CUOMO: Tony, is the president in a “state of denial” when it comes to Iraq?

SNOW: No, and I think Bob may have lots of sources in the administration, but they obviously weren't key players. Look, the president receives raw and realistic assessments all the time, and frankly keeps pushing generals and others to try to give him honest answers. As a commander in chief, it is not your job to live in a state of delusion. You know in a time of war, you gotta get it right. You have to do your very best at all times. That means push the generals about the facts on the ground. It means talk to outside experts, and we have outside experts in all the time giving us different points of view. This is a president who tries to look at the conflict of Iraq from all different points of view and also to try to assemble as much information as possible. That's why it's kind of a baffling scenario for those of us who work in the White House and sit with the president, because he is somebody who's aggressively curious, but he is also insistent that nobody paint rosy scenarios. You know, that's the most peculiar thing. Again, Bob may have lots of good sources, and I'm sure he's quoting them accurately. The problem is, they're like people sitting on the outside of the room speculating about what's going on on the inside.

CUOMO: At this point, do you believe it's a fair expectation that things will get worse in the next year in Iraq?