Bad Times

The fallout is still coming down for the New York Times and their hit piece against Senator John McCain. Apparently, the Old Gray Lady has gotten too old and set in its leftist ways to be taken too seriously anymore.

Dr. Thomas Sowell has something to say about that in his most recent column:

The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as "news" stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes. Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University "rape" hoax that they fell for. In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jason Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go. Last month the New York Times created its own hoax with a long front page article about how war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were killing people back in the United States because of the stress they had gone through in combat. That hoax was shot down two days later by the New York Post, which showed that the murder rate among returning war veterans was only one-fifth the murder rate among civilians in the same age brackets.

And I'm proud to say that I was one of the New Media bloggers who helped to spread the debunkment of that story about the vets:

A Hidden Tax On New Cars, NY Times Lies About Veterans And Great Britain Is "Mostly Free"
84rules
January 17, 2008

You would think that after getting caught so many times that the Times would clean up it's act. They didn't:

Undaunted, the New York Times has come up with its latest front-page sensation, the claim that some anonymous people either suspected an affair between Senator John McCain and a female lobbyist or tried to forestall an affair. But apparently no one actually claimed that they knew there was an affair. This did not even rise to the level of "he said, she said." Instead it was anonymous sources reporting their suspicions. People who share the New York Times' political views are treated as "innocent until proven guilty." People with different views are condemned for "the appearance of impropriety," even if there is no hard evidence that they did anything wrong.

Which is why we don't trust the NYT at all.

And here is what makes me proud:

The rise of alternative media -- notably talk radio -- has limited how much the mainstream media can get away with. Dan Rather's fake memo about President Bush's National Guard service might have gone unchallenged, and affected an election, back in the old days when the media consisted largely of like-minded colleagues who would not embarrass one of their own. Bloggers and talk radio shot that one down. But it is doubtful if we have seen the last of the journalistic hoaxes. Not in an election year.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Bad Times
Dr. Thomas Sowell
GOPUSA.com
February 26, 2008

Some other really good columns about the New York Times' diminishing credibility can be accessed on-line here:

New York Times' Unsubstantiated Assault As A Boost To McCain
Paul Weyrich
TownHall.com
February 26, 2008

McCained
Rich Galen
TownHall.com
February 22, 2008

McCain Camp Vows To 'Go To War' With NYT

Well, it didn't take long for leftist Old Media to come out and run a "hit piece" aganst John McCain. And it was the Old Gray Lady herself that did it. The New York Times ran a story about rumors concerning John McCain and a lobbyist. From Johnathan Martin and Michael Calderone over at the Politico:

John McCain’s campaign promised to “go to war” against The New York Times Wednesday night after the newspaper posted its long-awaited story on McCain's alleged relationship with a telecom lobbyist. Both McCain and the woman in question denied having a romantic relationship. The story, word of which first leaked to the Drudge Report in December, relies on anonymous sources tied to McCain who said the lobbyist was warned to keep her distance to the senator in the run-up to his first presidential bid.

So far, nothing new here. These accusations have been thrown around before.

More:

"It is a shame that The New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign," communications director Jill Hazelbaker said in a prepared statement sent about an hour after the Times posted their story online. "John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

And still nothing new. The lefists at the NYT know that the Dems cannot win on the issues and are making early efforts to deflect attention away from those issues. Further, the timing (and placement) of this story looks as if it was also meant to divert attention away from the fact that Hillary Clinton's campaign is severely tanking at this point and she is the NYT's hometown favortie.

But here is another reason why the timing and placement of this story is suspect:

Asked about the impact that the allegation of adultery would have among social conservative activists, some of whom still aren’t entirely sold on McCain, Black said they would see it as “The New York Times spreading rumors and gossip.”

And the McCain campaign pledge concerning the matter:

“We’re going to war with the New York Times, so they’ll probably like it.” Another adviser to McCain offered a similar defense. “Conservatives are standing up for us,” this source said. Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review and a sometime critic of McCain, sided with the Arizona senator, suggesting the Times just used other elements as cover to print a sex story. “Let's be honest: This story is all about the alleged affair, and all the Keating Five and campaign finance reform rehash is window dressing,” Lowry wrote on his magazine’s blog. Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity, who also had criticized McCain harshly at times, also was supportive on his show.

How refreshing it is to see a GOP candidate who is going to fight back against the left-wing biased of Old Media.

The leftists at the New York Times and their Dem allies may have seriously miscalculated this one. Conservatives, even those who have voiced opposition to John McCain's candidacy, are not going to tolerate hit pieces like this. In fact, this accusation is going to cause more Conservatives to rally around the GOP candidate.

There is a very important moral here. Three things you should never trust in the world of Politics:

1. Rumors.
   
2. Anonymous sources.
   
3. Disgruntled ex-associates with an ax to grind.
   

It didn't work for Dan Ra^ther and it won't work for the NYT.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

McCain Camp Vows To 'Go To War' With NYT
Jonathan Martin and Michael Calderone
Politico.com
February 21, 2008