The Times and McCain

[8ballrollin]

Originally Posted by SoonerCoug

I don't think this news story is about bonking a younger lady. It's about McCain's unethical behavior, even aside from the alleged affair.

Newsweek produced a deposition yesterday that proved McCain lied yesterday morning. He contradicted his own testimony under oath. Man has zero credibility. Grumpy old man.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/114505

If you read it that way, you're one of the few on the planet who did...

A newspaper cannot begin a story about the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee with the suggestion of an extramarital affair with an attractive lobbyist 31 years his junior and expect readers to focus on anything other than what most of them did. And if a newspaper is going to suggest an improper sexual affair, whether editors think that is the central point or not, it owes readers more proof than The Times was able to provide.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/op...=2&ref=opinion

Beyond its revelations, however, what's most remarkable about the article is that it appeared in the paper at all: The new information it reveals focuses on the private matters of the candidate, and relies entirely on the anecdotal evidence of McCain's former staffers to justify the piece--both personal and anecdotal elements unusual in the Gray Lady. The story is filled with awkward journalistic moves--the piece contains a collection of decade-old stories about McCain and Iseman appearing at functions together and concerns voiced by McCain's aides that the Senator shouldn't be seen in public with Iseman--and departs from the Times' usual authoritative voice. At one point, the piece suggestively states: "In 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, 'Why is she always around?'" In the absence of concrete, printable proof that McCain and Iseman were an item, the piece delicately steps around purported romance and instead reports on the debate within the McCain campaign about the alleged affair.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.ht...d-2a2cd2b96a24