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AcousticGod
Knowflake

Posts: 4415
From: Pleasanton, CA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 23, 2008 11:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Battle Between McCain Team and 'NYT' and Politico Rages

By E&P Staff

Published: September 22, 2008 10:25 PM ET

NEW YORK It all began with a New York Times article today -- not on the front page -- that tied Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manage to receiving nearly $2 million in payments in the past five years to run a firm defending Fannie May and Freddie Mac and others. It sparked a remarkable conference call with reporters in which Steve Schmidt, chief McCain strategist, hit back at the Times, charging that it is no longer even a journalistic operation but a propaganda organ for Barack Obama.

That led Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, to respond (in note to Politico.com) "The New York Times is committed to covering the candidates fully, fairly and aggressively. It's our job to ask hard questions, fact-check their statements and their advertising, examine their programs, positions, biographies and advisors. Candidates and their campaign operatives are not always comfortable with that level of scrutiny, but it's what our readers expect and deserve."

Meanwhile, another Politico writer, Ben Smith, wrote a tough piece declaring that several facts put forth by the McCain team in the same conference call were false. This inspired a McCain aide to state that Smith, like the Times, was "in the tank" for Obama.

In a piece later in the day, Politico pointed out that McCain is an avid reader of the Times and "has enjoyed a very friendly relationship with the paper and many of its biggest stars – as recently as 24 hours before the Schmidt attack."

Joe Klein at Time's Swampland joined in, writing that Schmidt has jumped the shark here: "[I]t should be remembered that Steve Schmidt is doing this for two (nefarious) reasons: 1. He's hoping to work the refs: if he complains enough about press bias, we mainstream sorts will cower, cringe and try to seek false equivalences between the two campaigns. 2. The more time we spend covering this nonsense, the less we'll spend on the real issues in this campaign."

Also, Sam Stein at Huffington Post pointed out that Team McCain has cited the discredited New York Times in at least 60 emails in its rapid-response messages to the media: "For a party that rails against the New York Times, the Republicans sure depend on the Grey Lady to score political points."

Schmidt's statement follows. For a fuller account of the above and links to all the pieces, go our new blog, at:
http://www.eandppub.com/2008/09/mccain-camp-goe.html
*
Schmidt: "We are first amendment absolutists on this campaign and the press and everyone who wishes to cover this race from a blogosphere and media perspective is constitutionally protected to write whatever they want. But whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization.

"It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain campaign, attacks Gov. Palin and excuses Sen. Obama. There is no public vetting... there is no level of outrage directed at his deceitful ads... This is an organization that is completely and totally 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate.... Everything that is read in the New York Times should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective.

"That, it is an organization that has made a decision to cast aside its journalistic integrity to advocate for the defeat of one candidate, in this case, John McCain, and the election of another, Barack Obama."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003853490

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AcousticGod
Knowflake

Posts: 4415
From: Pleasanton, CA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 23, 2008 11:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
McCain camp criticism rife with errors
By: Ben Smith
September 22, 2008 08:06 PM EST

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family's already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.

“Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told reporters.

But as he went on to list a series of stories he thought reporters should be writing about Obama and Biden, in almost every instance he got the details wrong.

Schmidt criticized the press for the relatively sparse coverage of the fact that one of Biden’s sons, Hunter, is a registered federal lobbyist.

“His son is a lobbyist for the credit card and banking industry,” Schmidt said.

But Hunter Biden’s lobbying clients don’t include any banks or credit card companies. He did work, as a vice president and then as a consultant, for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank and credit card giant to which Biden had close ties. But he does not appear to have lobbied for the firm.

“Steve Schmidt lied — or just got it flat wrong," said Biden spokesman David Wade. "Hunter Biden has never — never — been a lobbyist for the credit card or banking industry."

Schmidt attacked Obama for his ties to William Ayers, who has spoken of his role in 1960s anti-war bombings committed by the Weather Underground.

"What we know for sure, and is beyond debate and argumentation is this: Senator Obama said that William Ayers is a guy that lives in his neighborhood. We know that that is a disingenuous and untruthful answer,” Schmidt said.

“Senator Obama began his political career in its early stages raising money at Ayers’ house,” he said.

Obama did hold a 1995 campaign event at Ayers’ house. It was not, however, a fundraiser, and Ayers did not contribute money to Obama’s first campaign, according to Illinois records.

Schmidt also complained of Obama backers’ attacks on McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“As soon as Gov. Palin was nominated, one of … Obama’s chief campaign surrogates, [Florida Rep.] Robert Wexler, went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer,” Schmidt said. “Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?”

But Wexler didn’t call Palin a Nazi sympathizer. He called former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan a Nazi sympathizer, and attacked Palin for allegedly having endorsed him.

“John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel,” Wexler said.

(Wexler was apparently wrong: Though Buchanan claimed that Palin had supported him, she said she backed Steve Forbes in 1996 and 2000, and no evidence has emerged to the contrary.)

Asked about the series of errors, McCain aides could not provide evidence to back up Schmidt’s assertions.

One McCain aide, Michael Goldfarb, said Politico was “quibbling with ridiculously small details when the basic things are completely right.”

Another, Brian Rogers, responded more directly:

“You are in the tank,” he e-mailed.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13747.html

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 23, 2008 11:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Good to see the McCain camp fighting back against the press. The American people agree with McCain.

They say, in polls that the press is trying to help elect one candidate or the other to the tune of about 69% but only 11% believe they're trying to help McCain.

69% Say Reporters Try To Help The Candidate They Want To Win

rasmussenreports.com

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