NY Times blows it on McCain article

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/132415.asp
(Seattle-Post Intelligencer editor's blog on topic)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html
(New York Times article on McCain)

By Alan Blanchard -- www.cornerstone.edu/journalism

From my perspective, and you can read the article for yourself in the NY (see other link above for access to article) Times, there are several problems with the story:

1. Sources are not identified other than as former aides to Sen. McCain ... whatever happened to reserving anonymous sources for individuals who risked physical harm or job loss for offering up real information with real news value?

2. All the anonymous sources could say amounted to unverified concerns about a possible relationship between the senator and the female lobbyist. No proof, just innuendo, and innuendo without any on the record sources.

3. Why wait until now to release the story as opposed to month or years earlier? While it may not have been politically motivated, it sure gives legs to that kind of criticism by onlookers.

4. While the article starts out with what amounts to titillating innuendo about a "rumored" relationship between the senator and the lobbyist, much of the article is a recap of the senator's past career, including his involvement with the Keating 5, which would have been substance enough for a standalone profile or feature story on McCain.

Seattle Post Intelligencer (see blog entry above) Managing Editor David McCumber explains why his newspaper didn't jump on the bandwagon and run the N.Y. Times story, which raised the issue last week of whether Sen. John McCain, GOP primary presidential candidate, R-Ariz., had been romantically involved with and/or intervened on behalf of a Washington, D.C., lobbyist.

McCumber writes in part:
"For a story that dealt with the maybe, looked-like-to-some-people, nobody-knew-for-sure dalliance in an extraordinarily elliptical fashion, it sure had a lot of impact. People read between the lines just fine, thank you. This story seems to me not to pass the smell test. It makes the innuendo of impropriety, even corruption, without backing it up. I was taught that before you run something in the newspaper that could ruin somebody's reputation, you'd better have your facts very straight indeed."

Political candidates should be scrutinized for ethical lapses or worse actions in their past lives, but newspapers with the resources and talent that the New York Times has should refuse the temptation to deal in rumors and innuendos. Their willingness to go down this tabloid journalism path sure does blur the lines between the old grey lady and the National Enquirer.

Alan Blanchard is assistant professor of journalism at Cornerstone University, editor and publisher of The Clare (Mich.) Sentinel and president of The Blanchard Group, LLC.