NYT's Big McCain Bombshell Fizzles Out

The New York Times's John McCain "bombshell" story, hinted at since December, was unloaded on Thursday's front-page -- and promptly fizzled out among conservatives and liberals alike, who dismissed the story from a four-person team as a strained mix of sex innuendo and old news (The Keating Five?). It's no wonder if you take a look. This story is all hype and no substance:
Clay Waters

MSNBC Cites Bozell Blast at NYT On McCain Hit Job

MSNBC has cited and discussed the press release issued today by Brent Bozell, President of NB's parent Media Research Center, excoriating the New York Times for its article on John McCain. The discussion came during the network's post-press conference analysis of McCain's appearance this morning.JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let me interrupt. This is interesting. Mika just handed me a Blackberry quote here…
Mark Finkelstein

Open Thread

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking points:Will the NYT McCain story impact the election? Is this just a dirty trick by the Times to submarine McCain in favor of the eventual Democrat nominee? Or, is the Times trying to entice conservative talk radio hosts to support McCain thereby scaring away moderate Democrats and Independents?Is Jesse Jackson right about the rifts in the…
NB Staff

Stephanopoulos: Will NYT Article Rally Rush, Ingraham to McCain

File under Law of Unintended Consequences . . . There has been significant speculation in the MSM that an upshot of the NYT's McCain piece could be to rally support for McCain from conservatives like Rush Limbaugh who heretofore have been, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about the Arizona senator.Typical was this exchange from today's Good Morning America, which followed an appearance by…
Mark Finkelstein

New Republic Editor: 'Times In the Tank' for Dem Nominee

Don't want to take NB's word about the NYT's liberal bias affecting its news coverage? Here's James Kirchick, Assistant Editor of the liberal New Republic, writing in TNR's "Plank" blog last night about the New York Times McCain article [emphasis added]:What Story?So here's the essence of the Times' 3,000-word "bombshell" on John McCain.John Weaver, whom McCain fired last summer (indentified…
Mark Finkelstein

ABC Spikes Michelle Obama's Gaffe, Then Declares It Unimportant

ABC's World News, which on Tuesday skipped Michelle Obama's comment that “for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” on Wednesday finally got to it, but only minimally as George Stephanopoulos praised her “good damage control” and declared: “I don't think it's going to be a huge deal.” Hard for it to become “a huge deal” when a broadcast network's most-watched news program…

Brent Baker

MSNBC: 45 Minutes on McCain, 'Eerily Similar' to Clinton-Lewinsky

MSNBC was so excited about a Thursday New York Times story with a derogatory look at Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s supposed relationship with a female lobbyist eight years ago, that the network broke into the 7 PM EST re-run of Hardball to read from the Web-posting of the article which Keith Olbermann described as “extraordinary.” Olbermann insisted the alleged efforts of staffers…
Brent Baker

The New York Times, John McCain, and the Abuse of Ethics Reporting

By playing politics with a story, America's 'paper of record' has made it more difficult for journalists to keep politicians accountable for their moral conduct.
Brian Fitzpatrick

NYT Suggests Unproven Adultery by McCain -- Unlike Clinton

Tim Graham

MSNBC Employees Laugh as Olbermann Humiliates Matthews

An interesting thing happened during MSNBC's coverage of Tuesday's primaries: Keith Olbermann humiliated Chris Matthews as studio employees laughed in the background (video after the jump). As the campaign coverage waned late into the evening, Matthews was interviewing Barack Obama supporter Kirk Watson (D), and was trying to get the Texas state senator to list some of the Illinois…
Noel Sheppard

How the MSM Twists Language to Blame the Innocent, Mislead Readers

Warner Todd Huston

Newsweek's Alter on Clinton: 'One of the Worst Run Campaigns in Modern

Magazine's senior editor says being uninformed is your own fault; says CBS demise caused by lack of cable news outlet.
Jeff Poor

Post Business Columnist Hopes Financial Markets 'Burn, Baby, Burn

Nathan Burchfiel

Post Business Columnist Wishes for Economic 'Burn

Steven Pearlstein exemplifies media desire for economic hardships and 'harsh and vengeful solution.'
Nathan Burchfiel