McCain's "lobbyist scandal"

The scandal over John McCain’s relationship Vicki is a model case of the media taking story too far. The New York Times published a story based largely on anonymous sources alleging a relationship between John McCain and female lobbyist. In addition to controversy over reliance on anonymous sources (one of whom was likely an embittered former aide), the Times was criticized by many - including its own ombudsman - for injecting the rumor of an adulterous relationship into a story that, even without any sexual content, what have been notable for the hypocrisy of McCain relationship with lobbyists given his leadership on questions of campaign finance and ethics reform. Finally, is sent a time of publication. The Times apparently had this story written at the tail end of 2007, chose not to run it until late February, when McCain was the presumptive nominee. This raises the question of journalistic ethics and partisanship, which led the New York Times heavily criticized by conservatives, including McCain himself.

The Stump’s role in this story, like many in the media, centered on analyzing not the events in question, but the Times’ coverage. The Stump’s observation that “The story reads to me like it had originally been much more ambitious, but had its guts ripped out somewhere along the way” is more media criticism than it has political commentary. Likewise, a longer piece by the new Republic's Gabe Sherman details the controversy over the Iseman story within the New York Times newsroom. Since the New York Times made the final mistake of making news rather than recording it, the Stump was reduced to critiquing The Times’ editorial decisions.

Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/02/24/why-are-conservatives-so-delusional-about-the-mccain-story.aspx
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/02/21/the-story-behind-the-times-s-mccain-story.aspx
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/02/20/mccain-bombshell.aspx