Behind the Gray Lady's drive-by
The New Republic has a "story behind the story" piece about the New York Times' drive-by attack on John McCain:
Beyond its revelations, however, what's most remarkable about the article is that it appeared in the paper at all: The new information it reveals focuses on the private matters of the candidate, and relies entirely on the anecdotal evidence of McCain's former staffers to justify the piece—both personal and anecdotal elements unusual in the Gray Lady. The story is filled with awkward journalistic moves—the piece contains a collection of decade-old stories about McCain and Iseman appearing at functions together and concerns voiced by McCain's aides that the Senator shouldn't be seen in public with Iseman—and departs from the Times' usual authoritative voice. At one point, the piece suggestively states: "In 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, 'Why is she always around?'" In the absence of concrete, printable proof that McCain and Iseman were an item, the piece delicately steps around purported romance and instead reports on the debate within the McCain campaign about the alleged affair.What happened? 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.
I'll admit my skepticism as to whether the timing of this story is down to "three months of intensive deliberations," as opposed to the fact that McCain now has essentially secured the Republican nomination.
By the way, the New Republic says that Marc Santora, who covered the McCain campaign for the Times, asked to be (and was) reassigned because he was "frustrated by the McCain rumors." I met Santora on the Straight Talk Express in November. He seemed likeable and fairly impressive.
