McCain Feels Media Bite
Thursday February 21, 2008
It seems everyone in the mainstream press and political blogosphere is talking about Sen. John McCain, and it's not the kind of talk that makes a candidate clap for joy.
Nope, it's sex-scandal time. I really should keep a tally ... which mainstream media outlet broke/led/embellished the John Edwards story? Would it be the same that is now accusing McCain of an affair? Nope ... the Edwards story was a product of the National Enquirer. The McCain one comes from the NY Times.
At Townhall, Mary Katharine Ham uses one of my lines: "If I had turned this load of crap into a journalism professor at the University of Georgia, I would have failed the assignment." (Yeah, I went to UGA Journalism school, too.)
Josh Marshall takes a more balanced approach, one that reflects my curiosity and fatalistic belief in the power of the corporate attorney:
Published at 03.09 Pacific
Nope, it's sex-scandal time. I really should keep a tally ... which mainstream media outlet broke/led/embellished the John Edwards story? Would it be the same that is now accusing McCain of an affair? Nope ... the Edwards story was a product of the National Enquirer. The McCain one comes from the NY Times.
At Townhall, Mary Katharine Ham uses one of my lines: "If I had turned this load of crap into a journalism professor at the University of Georgia, I would have failed the assignment." (Yeah, I went to UGA Journalism school, too.)
Josh Marshall takes a more balanced approach, one that reflects my curiosity and fatalistic belief in the power of the corporate attorney:
This is an odd story for a couple reasons. We know that the McCain Camp went to the mattresses to get this story spiked back in December. And some heavy legal muscle was apparently brought to bear. When a story has to go through that much lawyering it often comes out pretty stilted and with some obvious lacunae. And this one definitely qualifies...More from the Washington Post, Washington Monthly, FOX Embeds and The New Republic.
I find it very difficult to believe that the Times would have put their chin so far out on this story if they didn't know a lot more than they felt they could put in the article, at least on the first go. But in a decade of doing this, I've learned not to give any benefits of the doubt, even to the most esteemed institutions.
Published at 03.09 Pacific
Comments
Timing is everything, isn’t it? The Republicans seem to be settling in with their apparent candidate and the “venerable” New York Times smear machine goes into action!
According to TPM, the story has been tied up with lawyers for months. Why is it a smear when the target is a republican but not when it’s a democrat?
Hi Kathy,
Despite having very different political ideas, I have always found McCain a nice guy. This is because of his past (I have a weak point for war heroes) and because of him speaking his mind no matter what. So I find distasteful that he is smeared by his enemies just at this time. I just hope for the Reps that the voters will still chose him because of this rather than despite of it. More in general, I find the US way of attacking candidates (or elected politicians) on their private life extremely disturbing. Let’s keep politics in the political field and let’s keep away from the boudoirs…
By the way, speaking about the legal system in the US, I would recommend this piece I found in Slate: . I thought it was worth asking your opinion on it.
Considering its ever-tightening bond with the Democratic Party, to consider it anything else would be naive. The NY Times is continuing its slide to be recognized as the DNC’s version of Pravda.