Battle Between McCain Team and 'NYT' and Politico Rages

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: Battle Between McCain Team and 'NYT' and Politico Rages
Battle Between McCain Team and 'NYT' and Politico Rages
By E&P Staff
Published: September 22, 2008

NEW YORK It all began with a New York Times article (Monday) -- not on the front page -- that tied Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manage to receiving nearly $2 million in payments in the past five years to run a firm defending Fannie May and Freddie Mac and others. It sparked a remarkable conference call with reporters in which Steve Schmidt, chief McCain strategist, hit back at the Times, charging that it is no longer even a journalistic operation but a propaganda organ for Barack Obama.

That led Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, to respond (in a note to Politico.com), "The New York Times is committed to covering the candidates fully, fairly and aggressively. It's our job to ask hard questions, fact-check their statements and their advertising, examine their programs, positions, biographies and advisors. Candidates and their campaign operatives are not always comfortable with that level of scrutiny, but it's what our readers expect and deserve."

Meanwhile, another Politico writer, Ben Smith, wrote a tough piece declaring that several facts put forth by the McCain team in the same conference call were false. This inspired a McCain aide to state that Smith, like the Times, was "in the tank" for Obama.

In a piece later in the day, Politico pointed out that McCain is an avid reader of the Times and "has enjoyed a very friendly relationship with the paper and many of its biggest stars – as recently as 24 hours before the Schmidt attack."

Joe Klein at Time's Swampland joined in, writing that Schmidt has jumped the shark here: "(I)t should be remembered that Steve Schmidt is doing this for two (nefarious) reasons: 1. He's hoping to work the refs: if he complains enough about press bias, we mainstream sorts will cower, cringe and try to seek false equivalences between the two campaigns. 2. The more time we spend covering this nonsense, the less we'll spend on the real issues in this campaign."...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003853490

[dchill]

1. Kick for journalism.

Such as it is.

:shrug:

[DJ13]

2. Damn, the stenographers are going on strike?!

:sarcasm:

[sharp_stick]

3. I love seeing that POS Schmidt

getting all worked up. He's trying so hard to put a shine on the turd that is the McCain campaign and failing badly, even his ol pal and buddy KKKarl Rove seems to have given up on him.

[Cha]

4. mcnoodle accused Mika on morningjoe's of

being in the tank for Obama, too..'cause he didn't like to answer a question of her's that put him on the defense.

Do ya see a pattern here? Is the mccain slime oozing outta control?

[DeepModem Mom]

6. You're right! There's another example. And, in Mika's case, a false accusation for sure. nt

[Cha]

7. It's very bush league of mcliar to

play rove politics with pundits and reporters. There couldn't be jaws big enough to the ass bite he's askin' for.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. LOL!

[nyc 4 Biden]

5. OMG Cenk will love this one...

"1. He's hoping to work the refs: if he complains enough about press bias, we mainstream sorts will cower, cringe and try to seek false equivalences between the two campaigns."