John McCain's campaign lashed out Wednesday at a new report in The New York Times alluding to the Republican presidential candidate's relationship with a female lobbyist.
When McCain denied the allegations in December, including the alleged affair, he was responding to expectations that the Drudge Report was going to preempt the investigation before the newspaper actually reported it, campaign officials said.
Though Drudge did not print the story, campaign officials contend that the newspaper decided to go ahead and publish it now because The New Republic was planning a scathing critique of the newspaper for revealing the contents of its investigation.
McCain campaign officials said two weeks ago, they got a call from The New Republic asking for comment and information because it was planning a story on the newspaper's investigation.
Officials argued The New York Times, buffeted by reporter scandals in recent years, is covering itself, publishing a deliberate smear under pressure from the magazine and because of sensitivity to its reputation caused by reporter Judith Miller, who investigated Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program and was a key player in the subsequent CIA leak investigation involving Valerie Plame.
It is pretty hilarious to see a "news" outlet issue an attack story on another news outlet for a story that outlet published only three hours earlier. It is a bit more sad when one considers that this is the very same "news" outlet that many Democrats have recently thought it was a good idea to debate on, only to temporarily break under pressure from the grassroots. Because, you know, we should be appearing on media outlets that issue press releases against other media outlets for publishing information that could potentially be damaging to Republicans.
Expect more over the top pushback from right-wing media outlets on this one. Heads are exploding as we speak.
