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Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Story Behind the McCain Story

posted by on February 21 at 10:25 AM

The New Republic has posted a must-read story that sounds like it was, in a significant way, part of the process that led to the publication of the New York Times’ McCain story today.

TNR’s piece looks deep inside the internal Times debate over the McCain article:

The publication of the article capped three months of intense internal deliberations at the Times over whether to publish the negative piece and its most explosive charge about the affair. It pitted the reporters investigating the story, who believed they had nailed it, against executive editor Bill Keller, who believed they hadn’t. It likely cost the paper one investigative reporter, who decided to leave in frustration. And the Times ended up publishing a piece in which the institutional tensions about just what the story should be are palpable.

The writer, Gabriel Sherman, recounts this terse email, received from Times executive editor Bill Keller while he was doing his reporting:

In an email to me on February 19, Keller wrote: “This sounds like a pointless exercise to me—speculating about reporting that may or may not result in an article. But if that’s what Special Correspondents of The New Republic do, speculate away. When we have something to say, we’ll say it in the paper.”

Sherman also suggests that competitive pressure, in the end, might have forced the Times to publish the story now:

When the Times did finally publish the long-gestating investigation last night, the McCain camp immediately tried to train the glare back on the Gray Lady. In fact, McCain advisers stated that TNR’s inquiries pressured the Times to publish its story before it was ready so this magazine wouldn’t scoop the Times’ piece. “They did this because The New Republic was going to run a story that looked back at the infighting there, the Judy Miller-type power struggles — they decided that they would rather smear McCain than suffer a story that made The New York Times newsroom look bad,” Salter told reporters last night in Toledo, Ohio.

RSS icon Comments

1

The Story Behind the Story
Posted by Bradley Steinbacher on February 21 at 10:17 AMA

Posted by Anon | February 21, 2008 10:29 AM
2

Yes this is all over the news this am, wonder why it wasn't in the original news summary. NYT slimes McCain with no proof, but holds off actually informing voters when it counts.

Late breaking news: 200,000-700,000 Serbs demonstrating in Belgrade to keep Kosovo non-independence.

"Balkans STILL Balkanized" I guess.

Seriously it's a big deal.

Posted by unPC | February 21, 2008 10:36 AM
3

setting fire to facade of US embassy in Belgrade. Entering it throwing furniture out.

Yawn. Guess it's not news.

btw we're supporting a Moslem ethnic group in Kosovo, and we get no credit for it in the Middle East. What has Al Qaeda done for the Albanians?

Posted by unPC | February 21, 2008 10:52 AM
4

Jon Taplin has some interesting background info regarding McCain's relationship with telecom lobbyists in general at http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/mccain-lobbyist-problem/.

Posted by Morgan | February 21, 2008 11:01 AM
5

Why is the NYT hell-bent on proving every wingnut criticism of itself true?

Posted by Fnarf | February 21, 2008 12:42 PM
6

The NYT will handle this gaffe in the only appropriate way.

By firing Dan Rather.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | February 21, 2008 12:47 PM
7

Having read the article, I found little slime. Instead, it recounts McClain's troubling inability to refrain from unprofessional relationships with lobbyists. Something he himself has admitted to.

Posted by crazycatguy | February 21, 2008 2:20 PM

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