The War Against the Times
Posted by Michael Cohen
Now I understand that many conservatives hate the New York Times, but this quote from John McCain, when asked about a conversation that his former top aide John Weaver had with McCain's alleged paramour Vicki Iseman, was shall we say, a bit stunning:
“I don’t know anything about it,” Mr. McCain said. “Since it was in The New York Times, I don’t take it at face value.”
Let's be clear, John McCain is not simply disputing the story, he's basically saying the Times made it up out of whole cloth. (And to be clear, the Times has Weaver on the record saying that this meeting occurred). The New York Times is not exactly some fly by night operation. Not only does it happen to be the foremost newspaper in America, but it's probably the single most influential paper in the country. And yet here you have the GOP nominee for President basically saying that you can't accept what's written there at face value.
Now conservatives have attacked the Times before, particularly after revelations in the paper about the President's warrantless wiretapping program. Now I could be wrong here, but those on the right didn't say that the Times had their facts wrong; they said they shouldn't be published. But McCain's attack takes the right's obsession with the Times to a new whole level by basically arguing that yesterday's story about his links to a female lobbyist is a fabulist creation. That's pretty astounding.
But it appears that McCain's negative view of the Times is a bit selective. Back in September, the paper ran a piece titled "Dispatches from the 'No Surrender' Bus" and the McCain press people were nice enough to issue a helpful press release about the story, "in case you missed it."
I guess the Times was telling the truth back then.
What's amazing is that despite McCain attacking the press, and proving by taking on the Times that he'll take on anyone who covers him unfavorably, that the press seems willing to sit back and take it. They still love their maverick. Go look at Swampland over at Time. All of the bloggers there dismissed the Times story. All of them.
Posted by: Mike M. | February 22, 2008 at 05:43 PM
If you think the New York Times is attacking John McCain, that’s nothing compared to what Iran is doing to attack his character. Check out this great blog post about the Iranian government claiming McCain is involved in a Jewish conspiracy!
http://jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/2008/02/iranian-tv-commercial-ties-mccain-to.html
Posted by: trevor taylor | February 23, 2008 at 03:32 AM
The difference between the two stories is the the latter had a bus and the former had a train.
Posted by: Neil | February 23, 2008 at 11:29 AM
See Michael Kinsley's column in today's (2/25) Wash. Post.
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