Legal Commentary

My View: The NYTimes Becomes The National Enquirer

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

My thoughts on the NYTimes story on John McCain (Jeralyn writes about it here) are summed up in my headline. More extensive thoughts below the fold.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

This is irresponsible, even despicable "journalism." Anonymous sources say THEY feared there was a romantic relationship 8 years ago? Suppose for a second, this is relevant, how could you possibly run this with just that? A responsible news organization would not.

But it gets worse.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship.

The two principals flatly denied the existence of a romantic relationship. No one has first hand knowledge or evidence or even can say - yes there was a romantic relationship. A responsible news organization could not possibly run this story.

What of the rest of the story? I do not know. The egregious tabloid journalism practiced by Bill Keller and the New York Times makes the rest of the article seem superfluous.

And let me make this perfectly clear, I do not care if John McCain slept with 20 women. That is between McCain, his wife and his conscience. It has nothing to do with the public. I said that about Bill Clinton. I say it now about John McCain.

During the 1990s, the tabloid press was the first stop to writing about Bill Clinton's sex life. It was "out there" was the mainstream press's excuse for writing about it. Since then, no barriers exist. And now, the Paper of Record, the New York Times, has pushed us to a new low.

There is no place lower to go. We have no responsible press anymore.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 20, 2008 (boomark / email).