Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center employees are doing their best to pretend the New York Times article on John McCain is false (though they make no effort to prove it so) and meaningless:
- TimesWatch's Clay Waters insists at NewsBusters athat the story is, in the words of his headline, "dying on the vine," making sure to hit those conservative talking points about the article, "anonymous sources" and "nine-year-old allegations."
- Mark Finkelstein hit those same talking points, citing "anonymous, disgruntled former associates as sources" who were "dredging up old stories."
- A NewsBusters post promoting a Brent Bozell appearance on C-SPAN notes that "Bozell speaks of the Bill Keller New York Times disaster."
- Noel Sheppard insists With each passing moment, it appears the New York Times laid a big egg with its hit piece on John McCain."
- Rich Galen, at CNSNews.com, dismisses it as "nothing more than coffee-machine gossip, inference, speculation, and conjecture," as well as "the journalistic equivalent of a blogger sitting in his basement feeding out rumors to the internet over his dial-up connection."
- Tim Graham plays the distraction card by accusing Times editor Bill Keller of adultery. Graham doesn't explain how this is relevant to to the veracity of the Times story.
- Brent Bozell called it "rumor and gossip, fit to print only for the likes of the National Enquirer."
By the way, telling "old stories" wasn't a problem for the MRC a couple years ago, when it used CNSNews.com to attack Democrat John Murtha's 40-year-old war record and 25-year-old scandal ties.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:17 AM EST
