It's like I always say, as long as there are women there's going to be trouble. (Of course I don't mean you, sweetheart.)
Adam started it all when he said, "The woman made me do it," though we don't know if Eve was a blonde, which is double trouble, meaning blondes, like Vicki Iseman, the lobbyist that the New York Times tried to link with John McCain. The attempt failed as legitimate news but succeeded as gossip fit to whisper but unfit to print.
The Times, as I've got it reasoned, was not really all that interested in McCain's love life. No, the editors were really going after his alleged ties to lobbyists. Since there's really no sex appeal in that (boooring!) what you do is "find the woman." Or, "find the bimbo." The French have it as "Cherchez la femme."
That comes to us from Alexandre Dumas' "Mohicans of Paris" and the line, "There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, look for the woman." That is precisely what the Times' editors did. In pursuit of McCain's assumed lobby follies, they followed the "bimbo trail" and came up with a woman who appears to have plenty of smarts but is, unfortunately, also very attractive, so "there must be something going on."
(Before we move forward let's remember that this is not about politics, Democrat or Republican. It's about journalism.)
Henry Kissinger is the one who said that power is an aphrodisiac, and this is where the Times' editors figured they'd get McCain. They failed, except by innuendo.
Innuendo is the lowest form of journalism, but it can still be harmful. Sometimes it's enough to ruin a man, especially a man like McCain whose career as a soldier and as a lawmaker is long enough to produce some kind, any kind of infraction, since nobody is perfect. Cardinal Richelieu put it like this: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."
No man above the age of 13 can withstand moment by moment scrutiny without some flaw being found, and this includes Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times. I'm not saying he had something going on with columnist Maureen Dowd, though I'm sure I can find anonymous sources if I tried. Redheads can also be trouble. (I married a redhead and I wouldn't mind this trouble for another 35 years.)
Credit McCain for rising above the story, certainly above the Times. This had to hurt, certainly his family, but this is a guy who survived the Viet Cong so he'll surely survive the New York Times. Nice try, though, on the part of the Times. It worked for the media at large when Gary Hart sent out a challenge to find the woman, and behold, they were caught together on some yacht. There were photos of Donna Rice sitting on his lap. No such luck on McCain.
This was not journalism's finest hour. There was a time when newspapers declined to show FDR in his wheelchair and braces.
This job on McCain is equal to tripping up a man on crutches - and it would have been just as bad had it been done to Obama or Hillary. (Or you and me.)
In response to the backlash (most readers "saw it as a story about illicit sex"), the Times' public editor, Clark Hoyt, has come out and scolded the paper: "If a newspaper is going to suggest an improper sexual affair it owes readers more proof than the Times was able to provide." In other words (my words), this was Gotcha Journalism.
We're all at the mercy of what people say about us behind our backs and it's a bad day when we find all that front page above the fold.
Upon another snafu, the Jayson Blair business, the editor who preceded Keller, Howell Raines, was forced to resign. What is going on in that newsroom? But let's not kid ourselves, despite what people say, or despite what people wish, the New York Times is still the lion in this jungle, still the most authoritative voice in journalism.
Withal its lapses, disrespecting the Times is risky business, and when the Times goes after someone, beware. When my newsroom novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, made the rounds, with the refrain HALF THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT (thank you for seconding that emotion Clark Hoyt), I was warned by an anonymous editor that I should be ready for no review or a bad review. So even this commentary is a risk.
That takes us back to a commercial that went something like this: "It's not nice to fool mother nature."
Oh, about that dark-haired beauty I've been seen with around town? Before the tattling begins, here's the scoop: her name is Rachel and she's my daughter.
Jack Engelhard's latest novel THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, now available in PAPERBACK from Amazon.com and other outlets, places journalism at the center of our war on terror and has been praised as "a towering literary achievement." (Author Letha Hadady) Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel INDECENT PROPOSAL that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned in a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His commentaries, like this, appear on Amazon.com's Discussion Forum and on his Amazon blog.
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Comments: 30
Perhaps not journalism's finest hour, indeed, but then again, real journalism hasn't existed in this country for probably 30 years or more.
As if it would be any of your business anyway.
Another brilliant discourse by Jack Engelhard. My agreement was automatic since in BODY FAT AND POLITICS I bemoan both the "trashification" of the media and its grossly irresponsible weilding of a pwer it should never have gotten but for the lies and government misconduct surrounding the Vietnam War. I will forever despise Lyndon Johnson for setting this climate of falsehood and blatant deception in motion....extra obnoxious since the whole reason was to continue to get rakeoffs from his friends at Brown&Root and other such place. It worked during the Alianza por Progresso...and it worked in Vietnam. And now we're watching these irresponsible SWINE dismantle our country piece by piece because of it. Loved the comment by Louis XIII first minister. Huey Long said something similar and J. Edgar Hoover had it all down in lack and white. I asked a friend of mine why he didn't run for DA, he responded: "there's too many photos around of me naked." great response.
Then shame on us. The "Media" like every other business in America is in business to make money. We have no one to blame but ourselves when we find that they are selling that which we are most anxious to buy!
Faux Noise hired her so you won't forget.
Hello out there. Is anyone paying attention?
Many people consider themselves lucky today if their job has health insurance. I worked for a number of years without it myself until I retired and could get social security and an affordable supplemental plan. So I didn't go to the doctor unless I was really really sick. I'd have been better served had I been able to take care of things early rather than waiting sometimes years, or (like with my hernia) until it went bad and I had to have emergency surgery. By then I had saved to within a few thousand dollars of the cost.
On one hand, it looks like an attempt to smear McCain. We all now that the NeoCon voices are speaking out against John, but a fact remaining, is that if this is the worst dirt that can be drudged up on McCain then nothing earth shakingly scandalous is likely to crop-up about him during the rest of this election cycle. This serves the Republican hopes of keeping one of their own a in the Oval Orifice.
On another hand, this article has become a smear on the integrity of the NYT; and we all know that smirching the reputation of the NYT does serve the Dark Lord's purposes.
Two anonymous staffers, providing no evidence that we know of, claim that some staffers were concerned that McCain "might" have an affair with an attractive female lobbyist, so they jockeyed her around to keep him away from him.
Personally, if I had been on NYT's editorial board when this story came along, I'd have passed on it and suggested that the sources carry their story over to FAUX NOISE.
Tough as it is, that's the only way... we can never doubt our enemies intend to go all the way. Once they are liberated from the increasingly effective pressure US forces are putting on them, they can get to work on the nuclear device that will destroy the country's infra structure in the Midwest, causing widespread shortages and looting as American society collapses on itself. They just need the resources and the time...they need the heat off them in those Arab countries where they must win. They already have the weapons with their billions of petrodollars...they just need to be able to marshal their forces.
But it angers me when people bring up non issudes or turn this very important race into a beauty contest.
I'm afraid that I do not share your willingness and desire to give up even more of our constitutional protections in exchange for some one's opinion of greater security.
If we change the nature of the United States in the effort to "save" it, the terrorists have accomplished their purpose. There is no such thing as total security, even in a closed prison. I want to keep this country as free as we possibly can.
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~