NY Times Ignores Negative Remarks About Hillary By Her Likely Republican Opponent

The New York Times published an article on Tuesday concerning an annual Conservative Party conference held in Albany, New York, on Monday. Reporter Jennifer Medina addressed issues raised by some of that state’s Republican candidates for governor and attorney general. Yet, Medina and the Times chose not to report in its print editions statements made at this meeting by John Spencer, the likely Republican candidate to oppose Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for senator this November.

At about 1PM EST on Monday, the Associated Press ran an article (hat tip to Drudge Report) about Spencer’s comments at this conference with the headline “Spencer: Clinton aids and abets our enemies.” According to the article, Spencer said “the New York Democrat's criticism of the Bush administration ‘aids and abets our enemies’ in the battle against terrorism.” Yet, for some reason, the Times chose not to report this part of the meeting to its readers, and didn't address Spencer's attendance at this conference at all.

A LexisNexis search identified few media outlets that covered this report. In New York, Newsday placed a 251-word watered-down version of this AP story on page A17. That was better than the Daily News who, like the Times, didn’t report this at all. Why should they, as Spencer had some strong language for Hillary and her husband:

“‘I wish we had [the Patriot Act] before 9-11,’ said the former mayor of Yonkers. ‘And, I wish we had an administration in Washington that wasn't an appeasing, liberal, whining administration in the 90's that allowed the terrorists to build up the way they built up.’"

Also according to LexisNexis, neither CNN nor any of the broadcast networks have reported this with the possible exception of their websites. Why should they with sentiments like these:

“Asked after his speech about his criticism of Clinton - who voted to authorize sending troops to Iraq but who has been highly critical of President Bush's conduct of the war - Spencer said she ‘puts politics first in our war on terror and our troops second.’

"Spencer said that while there was a way to properly criticize the conduct of a war - he cited Republican Sen. John McCain – ‘You shouldn't do it with such divisive and blame-America-first methodology, and that's what she does, which aids and abets our enemies.’"

As the article continued, Spencer had some negative words for some other media darlings: “Lumping Clinton with Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, Spencer added, ‘They seem to salivate at what they hope would be bad news for the Bush administration, and that's divisive for our nation.’”

Spencer is currently way behind Clinton in the polls. It seems logical to assume that such a gap would be impossible to overcome if the press doesn’t report his campaign speeches.