The New York Times Does It Again

publication date: Feb 25, 2008

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author/source: John Fredericks / STAFF

By John Fredericks/Staff

In the famous 1980 presidential debate between Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter, upon hearing Carter go off yet another time on why Reagan would disband Social Security and threaten the financial security of millions of seniors, Reagan smiled, shifted his head, and replied softly and devastatingly, “Well now, Mr. President, there you go again.”

So it goes with The New York Times and their ludicrous front-page story last week raising the possibility of an inappropriate romantic relationship between 71-year-old senator and soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee John McCain and an attractive female lobbyist, 40-year-old Vicki Iseman. The story also hinted at political favors McCain may have done for the lobbyist in question that were a direct result of the possible relationship.

The Times, losing readers, subscribers, advertisers, market share and stock share price by the day, remains the poster boy – excuse me – poster gray lady of why major daily newspapers are in rapid decline and/or decay throughout the United States. The media industry consultants blame the Internet and other forms of digital competition. I blame the New York Times and other newspapers who engage in advocacy journalism that loses credibility with sophisticated readers and whose content is agenda-based and out of step with their readership. It’s not the Internet; it’s the content, stupid.

Lets take this piece about McCain in the Times. The story floats the idea of a possible sexual relationship between the senator and a lobbyist who evidently had her share of access to him. After countless months of investigative journalism, what was its proof? Well, nothing. The Times used anonymous sources (always dangerous in serious journalism) and an array of disgruntled former aides in McCain’s senate office or former officials in his presidential campaign who got sacked or left the senator for whatever reason as the basis for the story.

The smoking gun was a meeting at Union Train Station in D.C. between the lobbyist and a McCain senior official who told the lobbyist that she was popping off around town about her “access” to the senator and to knock it off and make herself scarce, lest it appear inappropriate, which it did. That is what political aides do: protect their bosses from things that may be innocent but look bad. Job well done.

So what does this prove? That the avuncular McCain likes to flirt with attractive younger women? Oh my gosh, the shame of it all! Personally, I have seen him flirt, harmlessly and innocently, with my own wife, Anne. Good for him, and good for her. Give me a break. I flirt with her, too, so at least I know he has good taste.

As the article progressed, the next stop in fantasy journalism was the attempt by the Times to suggest McCain may have subsequently written letters to the FCC to influence legislation that Iseman was pushing. So what were those letters? It turns out they were requests for the FCC to simply make a prompt decision on issues that were held up, and specifically stated that he took no position. The horror of it all!

This entire piece was thinly sourced and offered up no dates, no hard evidence and no eyewitness accounts.

Both the senator and the lobbyist have denied any “relationship,” and there are no accounts or evidence to dispute those denials. Does that matter to the editors at the Times? Nope. What matters is a chance to do serious harm to McCain’s campaign for president, in favor of their preferred candidates, Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama.

Professional journalism 101 teaches us that if you have no story, don’t run the story. They had no story. They ran it anyway.

Here is the good news for McCain. The New York Times  did in one day what the McCain campaign could not have accomplished in six months: It united the conservatives who distrust McCain by providing a common and greater enemy, causing them to rally to his side. That enemy? The New York Times itself and its slap-dash, agenda-based propaganda that it markets as “news.”

Disclosure: John Fredericks financially contributed to the John McCain for President primary campaign in 2007 and 2008.