Hit Pieces on McCain
Here is a Fox News segment with Greg Jarret talking with ABC News' Rick Klein about how the New York Times attack on John McCain is actually helping McCain, particularly with raising money:
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, considered to be quite a liberal-leaning newspaper - from what I understand, refused to run the New York Times hit piece on John McCain. Today, David McCumber, one of their editors, explained why in a remarkable article. Here are some excerpts from his article:
I chose not to run the New York Times story on John McCain in Thursday's P-I, even though it was available to us on the New York Times News Service. I thought I'd take a shot at explaining why.
To me, the story had serious flaws. It did not convincingly make the case that McCain either had an affair with a lobbyist, or was improperly influenced by her. It used a raft of unnamed sources to assert that members of McCain's campaign staff -- not this campaign but his campaign eight years ago -- were concerned about the amount of time McCain was spending with the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. They were worried about the appearance of a close bond between the two of them. read more »
It is becoming widespread consensus that John McCain has not only weathered the pathetic hit piece by the New York Times, he is triumphing over it! Just listening to the various cable news channels, and sampling opinion from the blogosphere, that is the clear impression from all quarters. Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen of Politico.com, set forth the basic consensus:
Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign claimed vindication Thursday night after a sophisticated 24-hour counterattack turned a potentially lethal story in The New York Times into a conservative call to arms.
The piece about McCain’s friendly relations with a telecommunications lobbyist—long-discussed in political circles and planned for weeks by McCain operatives—was the first test of his ability to confront a public-relations crisis since becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee. read more »
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Conservative Evangelical Leader Gary Bauer, according to CBN News' David Brody, thinks the New York Times attack on John McCain is a "textbook case of yellow journalism," and believes it very well may backfire on them to the benefit of Sen. McCain:
I just got off the phone with Evangelical leader Gary Bauer who is a supporter of John McCain.
Here's what he told me regarding the John McCain story in The New York Times:
"I thought it was a particularly good textbook case of yellow journalism. I was very impressed with the Senator and his wife handling of it this morning and I think whatever the Times intentions were I think there is a decent chance that it will create a backlash in favor of the Senator.
My friends Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingram, all who are critics of McCain are in fact attacking the article and defending him." Bauer may be defending McCain but this is a good example of how it's important for the McCain campaign to have multiple Evangelical surrogates to go out and defend McCain.
That's why people like Sam Brownback and others will be an important first line of defense when it comes to helping out McCain with social conservatives."
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David Brody is reporting that Sen. Ted Kennedy said this afternoon that he does not believe the New York Times hit job on John McCain "has a ring to it," clearly intending "a ring (of truth) to it."
Today I was in San Marcos, TX today at a Barack Obama rally where Ted Kennedy gave a fiery speech on behalf of the junior senator from Illinois.
After the event, a small group of reporters gathered around him in a hot, smelly room. I asked him about The New York Times article questioning John McCain's ethics.
Read what he told me below. The video will be posted in the next few hours.
Brody: Your colleague and good friend John McCain is under a little fire today from The New York Times, have you read the article and what do you make of it?
Kennedy: I have not read the article, and I'm not familiar with the details, and I think that John McCain obviously has to answer, but as someone who knows John McCain well, it doesn't have a ring to it.
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The New York Times reporter who in part wrote the hit piece on John McCain, Jim Rutenberg, has reportedly declined an opportunity to defend the truthfulness of his story. Patrick Hynes, of Ankle Biting Pundits, and who knows Rutenberg, reports the following:
At 6:51 AM this morning, I e-mailed Jim Rutenberg– whom I know and have interacted with in the past–to invite him onto my radio program “Meet the New Press” on Saturday morning to discuss the sourcing of his New York Times hit piece on my client John McCain.
At 7:24 AM Rutenberg declined my invitation in an e-mail and indicated—without my even asking—that no one else at the Times was likely to come on, either.
It seems very odd to me that after having “broken” (broken, indeed) a big story about a major national figure, a story that is capable of impacting the 2008 presidential election, no one at the Times has any interest in discussing the story any further, especially considering so many have expressed such deep skepticism about its sourcing and the value of its content.
Let this blog post stand as an open invitation to any and all reporters and editors at the Times: If anyone there has any interest in defending the paper’s integrity and answering the many questions readers have about its sourcing, I have an open microphone for two hours on Saturday morning.
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Here is video of John and Cindy McCain blasting the New York Times today at a press conference in which McCain forthrightly and exhaustively answered questions on unsubstantiated allegations in the hit piece:
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Here is Democrat Robert Bennett, an attorney hired by John McCain, blasting the New York Times hit piece on NBC's The Today Show, this morning:
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Here is the take of a liberal Assistant Editor for The New Republic on the New York Times McCain hit piece:
What Story?So here's the essence of the Times' 3,000-word "bombshell" on John McCain.
John Weaver, whom McCain fired last summer (identified in the Times piece as "now an informal campaign adviser" to McCain, which sounds like a puffed-up euphemism for "unemployed") says that 8 years ago, he and two other former employees who have since "become disillusioned" (read: disgruntled), suspected that McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist.
The rest of the article, rehashing old news about the Keating Five, is, as Rich Lowry says, complete "window dressing." If you had been wondering whether the Times was in the tank for Obama, well, here's your answer.
--James Kirchick
Exactly. It could not be said better. Even liberals recognize this for what it is.
Hat Tip: Newsbusters
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The same New York Slimes (Times) that is out today with a pathetic hit piece on John McCain's ethics, chose to endorse him just over three weeks ago ahead of the New York Primary! In fact, in their endorsement they praised McCain's character:
Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.
We have shuddered at Mr. McCain’s occasional, tactical pander to the right because he has demonstrated that he has the character to stand on principle. He was an early advocate for battling global warming and risked his presidential bid to uphold fundamental American values in the immigration debate. A genuine war hero among Republicans who proclaim their zeal to be commander in chief, Mr. McCain argues passionately that a country’s treatment of prisoners in the worst of times says a great deal about its character.
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