McCain campaign savages New York Times

Tuesday 23rd September, 06:41 AM JST

PHILADELPHIA —

John McCain’s White House campaign Monday lashed out at the media and declared the venerable New York Times was “150%” behind Democratic hopeful Barack Obama.

McCain senior strategist Steve Schmidt rebuked journalists he said had failed in their duty to submit Obama to intense scrutiny and accused news organizations of hounding McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin.

“Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization,” said Schmidt on a conference call with reporters.

“It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.

“This is an organization that is completely, totally, 150% in the tank for the Democratic candidate, which is their prerogative to be, but let’s not be dishonest and call it something other than what it is. It is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity and tradition to advocate for the defeat of one candidate—in this case, John McCain.”

The McCain campaign complaints were reminiscent of comments by the campaign of former Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, which claimed the media was giving Obama an easy ride and not properly “vetting” his candidacy.

Schmidt’s outburst came in specific response to a question about a story in Monday’s paper which said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis had lobbied for $30,000 a month for five years to defend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The two firms were taken under government control earlier this month in the early stages of the economic crisis which has consumed Wall Street and transformed the presidential campaign.

Davis said on the conference call he had been on leave of absence from his company for 18 months, and had not done any lobbying work in the area for up to a year-and-a-half before that.

The McCain campaign also defended Palin over her lack of contact with journalists, saying she had spoken to ABC News and Fox News and would soon do an interview with CBS.

“If anybody ever asked us to make a choice between seeing 60,000 people at a rally ... or spending an hour with a reporter, I don’t imagine that we’d have many questions as to what we’d rather do,” said Davis.

Anger at the media was not just confined to the ranks of McCain’s campaign brain trust on Monday.

At a rally Scranton, Pennsylvania, one woman stood up in the question-and-answer period, and berated journalists, pointed a journalists and accused them of exploiting the pregnancy of Palin’s unwed teenaged daughter.

“They need to start doing their job and stop picking on little children because of their age and their pregnancies, shame on you,” she shouted, provoking delighted cheers at the rally among the mainly Irish American audience.

The Obama campaign mocked Schmidt’s comments as a “laughable screed” and sent journalists a list of 40 “probing” stories the paper had written on the Illinois Senator.

Spokesman Bill Burton said the Times had not done any stories on McCain’s role in a 1980s Savings and Loans scandal when he was accused of improperly helping a financier counter regulators.

McCain was cleared of corruption in the “Keating Five” case but accused of showing poor judgement. He overcame association with the scandal by throwing himself into the reform of campaign finance laws.

The New York Times is regarded by some observers in America as a paragon of journalistic standards which keeps its news reporting and opinion comment strictly separate.

But it is reviled by conservatives who rail against the perceived liberal bias of the mainstream media.

Wire reports

Latest 15 of 102 Total Comments Show All

flyingfish at 11:50 AM JST - 26th September

check out the latest sarah palin interview..

its scary..

she cant even remember the stuff they told her to say..
Nessie at 05:10 PM JST - 26th September

Taniwa, I think Sez was referring to the recurring flavor of jeremiad in your posts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiad
taniwha at 07:24 PM JST - 26th September

Nessie,

If you want to say I write long and negative prose consider for a moment the themes I address. They are weighty issues that can't be addressed with simplistic homilies.

I do think though that there is always room for wit, so I'm quite happy to leave the one liners for you.
Sarge at 07:38 PM JST - 26th September

flyingfish - Get ready for Vice President Palin.
flyingfish at 12:31 AM JST - 27th September

ive now watched the couric interview and thats even worse.. it doesnt make any sense at all what shes saying and some of it shes reading off a card.she doesnt know what shes talking about ..i feel sorry for her cos shes patently out of her depth but moreover it makes me very scared... how is this possible?
taniwha at 09:28 AM JST - 27th September

Flyingfish,

How is this possible?

After two terms of the Bush junior/Cheney administration and you are surprised to see yet another naive and reactionary like Palin nominated for Vice President? I'm not.

For starters, the majority of Americans are not directly responsible for these kind of leaders. The George Bushes and the Sarah Palins are virtually placed into these position in a most undemocratic manner. George Bush junior after all, became president twice without winning the majority of votes either time.

The naive and reactionist character of both individuals makes them perfect for the job of looking after the interests of the thin layer of wealthy elite, the class that runs America, in what is a time of desperation - particularly for this lot. They have will not think twice about taking away the rights of citizens, or dropping bombs on civilians in a foreign country when the interests of the ruling elite are at stake.

What you have is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy.

We are all but certain to see a McCain and Palin administration. But the really shocking thing is that an Obama and Biden administration would follow an almost identical policy direction, both domestic and foreign. They would have to, because that is the nature of a plutocracy.
Alinsky4prez at 09:35 AM JST - 27th September

The George Bushes and the Sarah Palins are virtually placed into these position in a most undemocratic manner.

The naive and reactionist character of both individuals makes them perfect for the job of looking after the interests of the thin layer of wealthy elite, the class that runs America

Comrade Taniwha - why do you torment us like this? Who, exactly, is the ruling class.

Name some names! Then we can, you know, break a few eggs.
USARonin at 09:48 AM JST - 27th September

...and the NYT savages the GOP and conservatives/conservatism all day long and into the night.

It's what they do.

If someone prefers another side to the same stories, they can go to The Washington Times.
flyingfish at 10:38 AM JST - 27th September

taniwha and others,

i can only assume you havent seen the interviews yet. were not talking about bush levels of incompetence-he at least appears to have some idea. palin does not..and she tries to blag her way thru im afraid there is 0 chance of mccain now winning because palin is such a laughing stock..that couric/palin interview ended his chances. i repeat its not the nature of her views that are the biggest problem for her(lets not even go to the witchdoctor stuff) as you say it didnt hinder bush,but the fact that she is quite demonstrably incompetent. as i say watch the interview ..and read the reactions .even the republicans are not trying to hide their feelings about her. this election in now over..
taniwha at 11:09 AM JST - 27th September

0 chance of mccain now winning because palin is such a laughing stock

So has been George Bush junior!

Even during Bush's first term in office abroad there was incredulity expressed at how such a man could be president. What Bush has been openly admired for by colleagues is his ability as a team manager. But that is only one of the character traits that was behind the reason he became president. As I have pointed out above Palin shares at least two of these characteristics.

You assume that democracy prevails, and that votes actually count in the making of a president. They do not. And that is precisely my point.

If the last two decades taught you one thing about the way US politics now works it should have been that presidents are not voted in by the American population.

I am certain that McCain and Palin will win this election for all of the reasons I have given on these threads.
flyingfish at 11:13 AM JST - 27th September

all i can say is that you havent watched the interviews. if you dont have time just watch the couric palin one.. its staggering

this election is now pretty much over as a contest which is a sad thing.
flyingfish at 11:52 AM JST - 27th September

conservative commentators are now calling for palin to pull out citing family reasons it really is that bad..
taniwha at 01:41 PM JST - 27th September

Flyingfish,

I did, I did watch the interviews.

I felt the same way I did when I watched George Bush Jnr being interviewed prior to his first election. It was horrible, Palin is a pawn, and that makes having her in the role of Vice President dangerous. More so when as others have pointed out already she is only a few heartbeats away from being the president.

McCain is quite old for the job, and on top of that he's not in the best of health. So if the Republicans retain the Whitehouse, Palin will find herself at some stage in the role of President of America.

Its true Palin may be pulled as Vice President.

To be honest I think just about anything could happen here. Those who are in charge of running the country now will decide how the next president comes into office. But don't look for rationality behind what is taking place. This lot are not looking further ahead than tomorrow and even then not at all past their own interests.

My guess is that many, maybe even you, will be watching the Vice Presidential debate next week. Its kind of that 'you know its going to be so painfully-gut-twistingly-embarassingly-baaaad that it's unmissable viewing', where we find ourselves watching it even though we know it's really a joke that is at our expense.
Alinsky4prez at 01:48 PM JST - 27th September

Those who are in charge of running the country now will decide how the next president comes into office.

Comrade - who, exactly, is in charge? Give us names and we can, you know, hack their emails and expose them. Its what we do best.
SezWho2 at 08:24 AM JST - 30th September

taniwha,

Sorry to have neglected you. My PC exploded.

This thread is really about McCain and the New York Times, I think. So I have tried to confine my comments as much as possible to the candidates and to the press. I think your comments are interesting and that they deserve consideration. However, I believe that whether the American desire to cultivate a culture of democracy amounts to the historic concept of "one-worldism" or whether there is any rapprochement between Capitalism and Socialism are somewhat beyond the point.

What is to the point is whether the press is biased. And to that I would say, "Yes, it is." I don't think it particularly has a liberal bias. If it did, it would pick up some of the issues that Jerry White has been talking about and it does not. I think those issues would be better addressed than avoided and I think America does itself a disservice by institutionally and popularly rejecting Socialism out of hand.

At the same time I would observe that we have not yet found a panacea for the world's ills and are not likely to find one in any ideology.