Free Republic

Sixty-Six Percent Say 'Smear!' The Gray Lady's smear piece on John McCain got 66% of Rasmussen respondents believing that the paper deliberately trying to kneecap the Republican frontrunner. Only 22% think that the paper had clean motives in publishing the unsubstantiated gossip: The Times recently became enmeshed in controversy over an article published concerning John McCain. Sixty-five percent (65%) of the nation’s likely voters say they have followed that story at least somewhat closely. Of those who followed the story, 66% believe it was an attempt by the paper to hurt the McCain campaign. Just 22% believe the Times was...

I have come under some criticism for my criticism of the New York Times for its criticism of Sen. John McCain. Many readers of last week's New York Times article about McCain, including me, read that article as suggesting that Sen. McCain may have had an affair with a lobbyist eight years ago. The Times, however, has made clear that its story was not about an affair with a lobbyist. Its story was about the possibility that eight years ago, aides to McCain had held meetings with McCain to warn him about the appearance that he might be having an...

Well, it's not what one might think. They have a correction on an irrelevant point in a completely discredited article -- but at least it's right at the top: A front-page article on Feb. 21 about Senator John McCain’s record on lobbying and ethics, including his role in the Keating Five case, described incorrectly the reprimand delivered to three other members of the Senate in 1991 for intervening with government regulators on behalf of Charles H. Keating Jr. The Senate Ethics Committee rebuked the three senators for improper behavior, but under a parliamentary agreement the full Senate did not censure...

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has been linked by documents and testimony to another alleged case of what critics are calling influence peddling, this time involving a minority broadcaster in Pittsburgh. The New York Times last week published a major, controversial expose that insinuated McCain had a romantic relationship with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman, whose clients had a large stake in decisions made by the Senate Commerce Committeee McCain headed. The report, however, was denied by McCain and widely discredited for lack of evidence. According to his own testimony, it wasn't until he decided to give...

It looks like we have been suckered again. The New York Times delays a lobbyist-scandal story until after McCain takes the lead (all the while endorsing McCain) and then slams McCain now that it is too late to nominate someone else. I write this out of bitterness and sadness over this disaster that need not have happened. We had the opportunity to support people that the NY Times was not spoonfeeding to us - even after Thompson dropped out. But we took the bait and now the Times has dropped the hammer, just like the polls that suddenly did a...

The White House sided with Sen. John McCain and accused The New York Times on Friday of repeatedly trying to "drop a bombshell" on Republican presidential nominees to undermine their candidacies. White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel... "I think a lot of people here in this building, with experience in a couple campaigns, have grown accustomed to the fact that during the course of the campaign, seemingly on maybe a monthly basis leading up to the convention and maybe a weekly basis after that, the New York Times does try to drop a bombshell on the Republican nominee. "And...

A day after insinuating that John McCain had an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, all of the romance appears to have disappeared from the New York Times. Faster than one can say Roberta Flack, the flak taken by the Gray Lady has apparently resulted in a Soviet-style purge of the sexual allegations from their story. Recall this in paragraph 2 of the original article: A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect...

INDIANAPOLIS — Senator John McCain declared the battle over on Friday morning, but by then his lieutenants believed he had already won the war. Conservative radio talk show hosts who had long reviled Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate from Arizona, had rallied to his defense. Bloggers on the right said that this could be the start of a new relationship. Most telling, Mr. McCain’s campaign announced Friday afternoon that it had just recorded its single-best 24 hours in online fund-raising, although it declined to provide numbers. Both sides traced the senator’s sudden fortunes to an unusual source, The New...

Earlier today, I linked to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and its editor's essay about the journalistic defects in the New York Times hit piece on John McCain. David McCumber chose not to run the Times' article in the Seattle P-I despite having the rights to it on syndication. Andrew Malcom at the Los Angeles Times reports that another paper also killed the story -- despite being owned by the New York Times: But one interesting aspect of this combined political and professional controversy went widely unnoticed. The Boston Globe, which is wholly owned by the New York Times, chose not to...

The embattled executive editor of the New York Times defended its John McCain story Friday with a novel explanation for the flood of critical e-mails the newspaper received: slow-witted readers. "Personally, I was surprised by the volume of the reaction," Bill Keller wrote in a Times Web site Q&A forum. Readers posted 2,000 comments and sent in 3,700 questions. "I was surprised by how lopsided the opinion was against our decision, with readers who described themselves as independents and Democrats joining Republicans in defending Mr. McCain from what they saw as a cheap shot," Keller added. The problem, Keller went...

Rarely has a "scandal" faded as quickly as the one in which the New York Times implied Sen. John McCain had a "romantic" relationship with Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman. After a one-day news blitz of everyone talking and speculating about the consequences of the Times front page "expose," the allegations have not only been scaled down, but are even being used as a fundraiser for McCain among conservatives. Without a persuasive followup, the reputation of the Times is taking a hit for running a major story based almost entirely on innuendo and insinuations from anonymous sources -- on what was...

John McCain just shoved his whole stack into the middle of the table and put his credibility and candidacy on the line. He just threw down the gauntlet to the New York Times by flatly denying every point of a front-page story that implied McCain had an affair nine years ago with a 31-year-old Washington lobbyist, then used his influence as a committee chair to promote the interests of her client. The Times' front-page story of the alleged romance was based on two anonymous sources the Times identified as former aides to the senator. The Washington Post quoted John Weaver,...

For years, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has railed against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in Washington, touting on his campaign Web site his fight against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided." But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and...

Our disagreements and battles with John McCain are legion. We have argued, advertised, organized, lobbied and litigated against his positions - on taxes, on judicial confirmations, on illegal immigration, on his assaults on the First Amendment, including so-called campaign finance reform. We shall continue to do so. Still, we would not now nor ever have done what the New York Times did to him, which is publish a story based on implication and innuendo and zero proof beyond statements of former anonymous aides that they believed that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist, and equally flimsy evidence that McCain...

Potentially lethal article triggers sophisticated and brutal pushback operation from McCain organization. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign claimed vindication Thursday night after a sophisticated 24-hour counterattack turned a potentially lethal story in The New York Times into a conservative call to arms. The piece about McCain’s friendly relations with a telecommunications lobbyist — long-discussed in political circles and planned for weeks by McCain operatives — was the first test of his ability to confront a public-relations crisis since becoming the GOP’s presumptive nominee. But the reaction may have said as much about the mindset of the conservative movement on the...

With the New York Times smear on likely Republican nominee John McCain and his alleged inappropriate relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, Fox News political correspondent Carl Cameron called in to add his take. Cameron revealed on the February 21 edition of "Fox and Friends," that Fox News came across these rumors last fall. Cameron stated that they were "unable to substantiate any of it." In regards to the alleged affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, Cameron asserted that they "were able to find precisely nobody who would go on the record or even suggest off the record that there was truth...

McCain at War with the New York Times by Jed Babbin Posted 02/22/2008 ET Updated 02/22/2008 ET Sen. John McCain’s campaign promised to “go to war” with the New York Times according to a report in the Politico released the morning after the McCain-Iseman story was released, alleging the presidential contender's involvement with the attractive lobbyist. But will McCain counter attack? He should, and not just because he’s been attacked. The Thursday evening story was just another in a long string of timing plays, contrived stories and political activism pretending to be journalism. Every election in living memory has been...

A sworn deposition that Sen. John McCain gave in a lawsuit more than five years ago appears to contradict one part of a sweeping denial that his campaign issued this week to rebut a New York Times story about his ties to a Washington lobbyist.

Class act: John Weaver TRIBUNE-REVIEW In the media storm that was John McCain and the New York Times yesterday, one man from McCain’s campaign past remained a class act: close friend and former advisor John Weaver. The article’s liberal use of unnamed sources had many speculating that one of the unnamed was Weaver. Those speculators apparently have never met or had a conversation with Weaver.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will never get mistaken as a conservative publication. It routinely editorializes in support of liberal causes and candidates, and it has come in for plenty of criticism for its decisions on publication decisions. They also routinely publish stories from their subscription to the New York Times syndication product. Today, however, David McCumber explains why he took a pass on the Times' hit piece on John McCain: Obviously, the reporters, Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn W. Thompson, David D. Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton, are not working for me. I have no way, other than their excellent reputations, of specifically evaluating...

A recent New York Times article examined a number of decisions by Senator John McCain that raised questions about his judgment over potential conflicts of interest. The article included reporting on Mr. McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee led by Mr. McCain. Since publication of the article, The Times has received more than 2,000 comments, many of them criticizing the handling of the article. Editors and reporters who worked on the article will be answering questions on Friday. Please send yours to askthetimes@nytimes.com.

ACTION NOTE: You can email the reporters here. Given the information below and their failure to be the least bit skeptical, you might want to do so. --------------- So much for your media friends, Senator McCain. The Washington Post piles on this morning in a most disingenuous way. In McCain's case, the fact that lobbyists are essentially running his presidential campaign -- most of them as volunteers -- seems to some people to be at odds with his anti-lobbying rhetoric. "He has a closer relationship with lobbyists than he lets on," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics...

The New York Times may have done the impossible for the John McCain campaign and for Republicans in general. As predicted yesterday when their strange and threadbare allegations hit print, the attack united conservatives behind McCain. It also may have been an act of seppuku for the Times, as its claim objectivity and credibility have been discredited. The Los Angeles Times surveys the damage: Conservative commentators, including some who previously chastised McCain for not hewing closely to their principles, leaped to the candidate's defense. Radio personality Laura Ingraham, like other critics, noted that the newspaper had been researching the story...

As media digest the recent John McCain sex scandal allegations [0] by the New York Times, one side of the story seems destined to get ignored: one of the four co-authors took money from a liberal activist group to fund a hit piece about Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) in 2006. Before becoming an investigative reporter for the Times, Pulitzer Prize winner Marilyn W. Thompson was editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky. As Howard Kurtz reported [1] in October 2006, Thompson was in the middle of what one might call a pay for play hit piece against that state's leading...

If John McCain weren't such a trusting soul he would have wondered why the New York Times endorsed him -- a member of the hated Republican Party -- as their (slightly) preferred candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, especially when he knew they were preparing a slanderous, largely anonymously sourced, story bound to damage his candidacy and his reputation.

If it were to be impeccably documented that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Washington's own Mr. Clean, did in fact permit his Senate vote to be improperly dictated by, as the expression has it, special interests, that would indeed be a major story. But the 3,000 word front-page piece that appeared in The New York Times Thursday ain't it. As an elected official who has excoriated the power of money and lobbyists in Washington, John McCain is, true enough, an inviting and appropriate target for scrutiny. Even he acknowledges that a gap between his declared standards and his actions would...

Talk To The Newsroom - The McCain Article. ...The Times has received more than 2,000 comments, many of them criticizing the handling of the article. Editors and reporters who worked on the article will be answering questions on Friday. Please send yours to askthetimes@nytimes.com.

What qualifies one to be a publisher at the New York Times? Apparently living through birth...if your name is Sulzberger. Other than that, Pinch Sulzberger is totally unqualified to be the publisher of even a freebie rag you see on the stands outside of supermarkets. So is that my own vicious rightwing conclusion? No. Liberal Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at New York University, also believes that Pinch Sulzberger has serious problems due to the New York Times "McCain Scandal" story as you can see in his HUffington POst BLOG titled, "For the New York Times, as Well, Self-Confidence...

All three broadcast network evening newscasts led Thursday night with the New York Times story alleging an improper relationship by John McCain with a female lobbyist, but questions about the journalistic standards of the newspaper were given as much consideration as the allegations against McCain. All three ran a soundbite from Rush Limbaugh denouncing the paper while ABC and CBS featured establishment media observers who castigated the Times for basing a story on the feelings of unnamed sources: Ken Auletta on ABC and Tom Rosenstiel on CBS. “John McCain began his day answering questions about a story in the New...

Allegations about Sen. John McCain's relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman have resurrected questions over his role in WQED Pittsburgh's controversial, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to sell its sister television station WQEX-16 in the 1990s. The proposed three-way deal involved a license swap between Ms. Iseman's client, Paxson Communications Corp., and Christian broadcaster Cornerstone TeleVision of Wall, which operated WPCB Channel 40. The transaction called for Channel 40 to assume the noncommercial license of Channel 16 and sell its own commercial license to Paxson for $35 million, split between Cornerstone and cash-strapped WQED. Paxson would gain entry into the Pittsburgh market...

The New York Times is in the crosshairs after publishing a lengthy and critical profile of John McCain Thursday that suggests that McCain had a romantic relationship with a female lobbyist. The New Republic published a long article Thursday afternoon on its Web site detailing the story behind the story and claiming, “What’s most remarkable about the article is that it appeared in the paper at all.” The New Republic lambasted The New York Times for giving the green light, claiming the piece was “filled with awkward journalistic moves” and that it stepped around the suggested trysts with lobbyist Vicki...

From Elisabeth Bumillers' New York Times follow-up article of today [emphasis added]: Later in the day, one of Mr. McCain’s senior advisers directed strong criticism at The Times in what appeared to be a deliberate campaign strategy to wage a war with the newspaper. Mr. McCain is deeply distrusted by conservatives on several issues, not least because of his rapport with the news media, but he could find common ground with them in attacking a newspaper that many conservatives revile as a left-wing publication. Let me get this straight. The Times has run an article relying as sources on anonymous,...

Tom Maguire has up a great post detailing many details some of us may have forgotten about this McCain non-story. First up is this TNR piece which purports to tell us all the backroom dealings going on at The Times regarding the story: The McCain investigation began in November, after Rutenberg, who covers the political media and advertising beat, got a tip. Within a few days, Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet assigned Thompson and Labaton to join the project and, later, conservative beat reporter David Kirkpatrick to chip in as well. Labaton brought his expertise with regulatory issues to the...

<p>WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.</p> <p>A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.</p>

John McCain can deny the latest allegations all he wants. He can try to push back by blaming everything on the New York Times. And he can state, as he did Thursday morning, that in his 50 years of “public service,” he has “never violated the public trust.” Oh, really? How about back in 1974 when then Commander John McCain--fresh off his 5½ years as a POW in North Vietnam--was given his first command in Jacksonville, Florida? McCain, according to Robert Timberg in his book, The Nightingale's Song, was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group...

Top Republicans are absolutely apoplectic over new reports that John McCain had an ethically inappropriate (possibly romantic) relationship with a lobbyist, accepted favors from corporations while criticizing the practice, and ran an Orwellian-branded soft money operation, "The Reform Institute," to advance his career and political cronies while railing against soft money. But the G.O.P. elites aren't mad that McCain did any of those things. They're upset that the media is covering it. In fact, the rage is so intense that many of McCain's harshest Republican critics are rallying around the ethically challenged Senator. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder cites reactions from...

Media Bias: Now that it's clear John McCain will get the GOP presidential nod, whatever "truce" he may have had with the press corps has expired. Not surprisingly, the New York Times has started the feeding frenzy.Sen. McCain made a point of making reporters feel at home aboard his Straight Talk Express, giving them plenty of face time. But anyone who thought that would inoculate him — a Republican seeking the White House — against the wrath of the media establishment doesn't know what makes that institution tick. The Times on Thursday finally published a story it has been working...

TOLEDO,Ohio— Senator John McCain said Thursday that an article in The New York Times about his close ties to a woman lobbyist was untrue, that he had no romantic relationship with the lobbyist and that he had no confrontations in 1999 with worried staff members who told him to stay away from her.“Obviously, I’m very disappointed in the article—it’s not true,” Mr. McCain said at a morning news conference in Toledo, where he was campaigning for president. “At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust or make a decision which in any way would...

One of two things will happen in the wake of Thursday's New York Times story that suggested John McCain may have had a "romantic relationship" nine years ago with a lobbyist who did business before the Senate Commerce Committee which he then chaired. (The story purported to be about McCain's ethics and dealings with D.C. lobbyists, in a failed attempt to gloss gossip with a patina of gravitas.) Either new information will come forward to corroborate this weak story - based solely on the speculation - as opposed to actual knowledge - of two sources (who refused to be named...

Last night, around dinnertime, The New York Times posted on its website a 3,000-word investigation detailing Senator John McCain's connections to a telecommunications lobbyist named Vicki Iseman. The controversial piece, written by Washington bureau reporters Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn Thompson, Stephen Labaton, and David Kirkpatrick, and published in this morning's paper, explores the possibility that the Republican presidential candidate may have had an affair with the 40-year-old blond-haired lobbyist for the telecommunications industry while he chaired the Senate Commerce Committee in the late-1990s. Beyond its revelations, however, what's most remarkable about the article is that it appeared in the paper at...

Not very shocking that the Times would leave something like this out of their McCain story: Robert Bennett, a Washington attorney representing McCain, told NBC’s “Today” show that McCain’s staff provided the Times with “approximately 12 instances where Senator McCain took positions adverse to this lobbyist’s clients and her public relations firm’s clients,” but none of the examples were included in the paper’s story. Highlight the instances where it benefited the company, but ignore all the times where it went against them….nope, no bias there. [?] Share This

WASHINGTON - John McCain sought to minimize damage to his man-of-character image and his presidential hopes Thursday, vigorously denying and denouncing a newspaper report suggesting an improper relationship with a female lobbyist. "It's not true," the likely Republican nominee said of the report that implied a romantic link with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman and suggested McCain pushed legislation that would have benefited her clients. "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust," said McCain, a four-term Arizona senator and a hero of the Vietnam War. He described the lobbyist as a friend. McCain and...

What is a powerful, successful woman in Washington to do? She spends years developing a client list and building relationships with (mostly male) politicians. But, reading today's news, as soon as that politician rises to a powerful position, she's to remove herself lest anyone suspect their relationship is romantic. I can just hear the partnership meeting now: "Sorry, Betty, but---now that politican A has become chairman of the XXX committee---it's time for you to let Richard take over that portfolio you've built up. Can't have people think Politican A has a crush on you, now can we?!". Just more double...

Claims that the charges against McCain are “unsourced” leave out one source that is prominently mentioned: John Weaver.So – who is he, and can he be believed? I recall that Weaver’s name was directly associated with the stories, delivered to the press in the 2004 Bush-Kerry contest, that McCain was flirting with an offer floated by Kerry to become Kerry’s running mate. In the retelling of that story by the Kerry people, the person who is square in the middle of the discussions and negotiations was -- John Weaver. When McCain’s campaign was imploding, back in the fall 07, because...

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 McCain campaign advisor Charlie Black. View video here.

Conservative Media Attack New York Times Talk Radio Hosts Lambaste Newspaper; Tweak McCain for 'Cozy' Relationship With Media By JENNIFER PARKER Feb. 21, 2008 — Conservative media outlets lambasted the New York Times today for front-page story reporting Sen. John McCain had what aides believed was a romantic relationship with a lobbyist in 1999. But they slapped McCain -- who has never been a darling of the talk radio world -- for what they called a "cozy" relationship with the mainstream press. "If you let the media make you, you are subjecting yourself to being able to let the media...

The lobbying firm Vicky Iseman works for, Alcalde & Fay, released the following statement on the Times' article, Iseman being named and the allegations that she had an affair with McCain: "The allegations and malicious innuendo reported by the New York Times yesterday are completely and utterly false," writes Kevin Fay, president of the firm. "Alcalde & Fay's relationship with Senator McCain has been professional, appropriate and consistent with his legislative, jurisdictional and constituent duties. The story is based upon the fantasies of a disgruntled former campaign employee and is without foundation or merit. Ms. Iseman is a hard working...

Wednesday, John McCain’s decade-long honeymoon as the favorite Republican of the mainstream media came to a crashing halt. In a remarkable coincidence, Wednesday marked approximately one week of McCain feeling so assured of the Republican nomination that he stopped attacking conservatives and began attacking Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. McCain, long a maverick, and the infallible, unassailable, war hero engineer of the “Straight Talk Express” is now just another Republican: an obstacle to the Democrat Party, to be denigrated, besmirched, harassed, undermined, gossiped about and ultimately destroyed. Welcome home, John. I can’t say we missed you, but it’s amusing to...

Commentary: Insufficient sourcing weakens paper's argument NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - The New York Times' front-page story on John McCain on Thursday was an example of shoddy journalism. The piece raised the possibility that McCain had had a fling with a lobbyist 31 years his junior. It offered no legitimate basis, other than the whispers of unnamed sources - the most questionable form of reporting in a democratic society. McCain said in a televised press conference Thursday morning from Ohio that the story was "not true" and added that he was "very disappointed" in the Times. McCain was no doubt worried...

This piece originally appeared on The American Thinker Blog The New York Times story alleging "impropriety" on the part of John McCain with a female lobbyist has several different angles to it but basically, it comes down to a story about sexual infidelity – a perfect start to the Times effort to smear McCain. That’s what the Times is peddling. And it is why they decided to run the story despite the fact that the legitimate issues they raise about McCain doing the bidding of this lobbyist is so thin that it’s damn near invisible. Ed Morrissey nails it: The...