Sex Scandal at the New York Times

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Sex Scandal at the New York Times

Posted Feb 24th 2008 7:18PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Scandal, John McCain, New York Times, Sex

Imagine reading an article that began like this: "The New York Times has been rocked by reports that its coverage of the 2008 election has been sorely compromised by an alleged homosexual relationship between executive editor Bill Keller and liberal columnist Paul Krugman.

"Waves of anxiety have swept through Times staffers who have been concerned about Krugman routinely showing up by Keller's side. Convinced that the relationship had become romantic, some senior staff at the paper have been trying to keep the two apart. These staffers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they warned Keller not to keep his office door closed especially when Krugman was inside.

"Concerns that Krugman's strong support for the Democrats have shaped New York Times coverage of the upcoming election underscore a paradox. The newspaper is widely suspected of tailoring its news coverage to support its political ideology--'all the news that fits'--even though the Times likes to portray itself as objective: 'all the news that's fit to print.'

"Both Keller and Krugman have denied the allegations although such denials are to be expected in such situations. Now some staffers are worried that Keller's coverage of the election may be influenced by his feelings for Krugman. 'We're worried that Krugman is threatening to break it off,' one reporter noted, 'if Keller doesn't give favorable treatment to his candidate and stick it to the Republicans.'"

Incredible? Absurd? Actually, this fictitious article is very, very similar to the actual article that the New York Times ran on John McCain. The key phrases in my made-up account are directly lifted from the Times' actual account. In that story, the newspaper alleged that McCain was having an affair with a 40-year-old lobbyist, naming her as Vicki Iseman. The Times also suggested that McCain gave special treatment to Iseman's clients.

What evidence that the newspaper produce for these explosive allegations? None, and this is after months of investigation by a whole team of reporters. It cited unnamed McCain staffers who said they had become concerned about appearances of impropriety. (None alleged any actual impropriety.) It cited two former McCain staffers who were by their own admission disenchanted with McCain, although even they refused to give their names.

Stung by criticism that followed this irresponsible piece, Keller told the public editor of The Times, "If the point of the story was to allege that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist, we'd have owed readers more compelling evidence than the conviction of senior staff members. But that was not the point of the story. The point of the story was that his close aides felt the relationship constituted reckless behavior and feared it would ruin his career."

I can testify from personal experience that this sort of weasel-behavior is entirely in keeping with the way the New York Times does business. Note that in the episode that follows I am giving actual names and not citing any anonymous sources.

Several years ago one of the paper's leading reporters Fox Butterfield did an article on The Dartmouth Review, which I edited as an undergraduate in the early 1980s. Seeking to discredit me, Butterfield quoted me as having written in the paper, "The question is not whether women should be educated at Dartmouth. The question is whether women should be educated at all."

A witty line, perhaps, only I didn't write it. The line was actually written by another student, Keeney Jones. When I called Butterfield to point this out, the man insisted, "No, you wrote it." So I demanded, "Where did I write it?" Butterfield pointed out that I had written an article about the Dartmouth Review in another magazine where I had quoted the line. I protested, "But I was merely citing controversial lines that had appeared in the student paper. How can you say I wrote that line when I made it very clear that Jones wrote it?"

To this Butterfield responded, "But by quoting it you have made it your line." I was dumbstruck. The best I could say to him was, "And I guess that since you have now quoted the line yourself, it has now become your line." The important point here is that we are dealing not with some dimwit but with a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter for America's leading newspaper. Yet apparently such dishonesty is the way they operate at the Times.

Some critics have been calling for Keller to be fired but I suspect that a much wider fumigation is required to clean house over there. The Times has long become a liberal rag and as incidents like these pile up, more and more people will recognize that the New York Times is no longer the great newspaper it once was.

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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 19)

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1. oh wow,

no sooner did i post that DD needed a new post than here it is. ah yes the liberal bastion of the liberal left smeering mccain. and it is SOOOO obvious that they along with nbc,cbs,abc, and all the other liberals want to beat the republicans so bad that they stoop to such levels. but lest we forget and need reminding the liberal left is all for tolerance!! i mean if they were so tolerant why would they run a story about mccain even if it were true. the liberal left is all about to each his own. why would they have a problem if tolerance was THE virtue we most need?

because the liberal left is anything but tolerant. the fact is they hate bush so bad they would rather us lose in iraq. they want to win so bad they throw weak drivel out like this non-story. but lets all remember its the left that is soooooo tolerant and us "fundies" who hate. of all the hypocritical measures that one can spew to say the lefties are tolerant. its an open face lie that has no equal. no wonder this country is in trouble. the conservatives who are interested in truth and justice are constantly being mis-aligned by the liberal left and the liberal media to turn this country over to the elitist like "spotted owl gore" who know better for us than we do ourselves

brian at 9:02PM on Feb 24th 2008

2. The problem with McCain's relationship with the lobbyist is not whether or not he had sex with her. Senator McCain has long been a supporter of lobbyist reform, saying we need to overhaul the way they do business. One finds it strange that he doesn't follow his own beliefs.

Your feeble attempt at humor is not admirable, Mr D'Souza. Imagine a headline that went like this:
"Indian writer, self proclaimed scholar, and all around dingus has surpassed his own standard of idiocy!"

mac at 9:09PM on Feb 24th 2008

3. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz!

C'mon, Dinesh...this was lame. You're about three days late to the party.

Paul at 9:10PM on Feb 24th 2008

4. mac,

did you miss the intent of the article. it was not about reform it was about discrediting mccain. do you even care? can you at least not defend a man who's been wronged or does your resentment run that deep. where's the tolerance

brian at 9:15PM on Feb 24th 2008

5. william,

do you have a wedgey? have you gotten over to this yet, i wanted you to answer my concerns would you be so kind, if need i can post them again for you.

brian at 9:18PM on Feb 24th 2008

6. paul, the party died because it was another twisted liberal lie,business as usual though right!!

brian at 9:34PM on Feb 24th 2008

7. Wow, Dinesh is so clever.

What a fraud!!!

Ryan Anderson at 9:46PM on Feb 24th 2008

8. ATHEIST

Reply to: william, i wanted you to answer my concerns would you be so kind, if need i can post them again for you.
________

Let's go back to "Remedial English for People Who Don't Get It"

I do NOT care about your concerns.

I will NOT answer them.

christianity is a DISEASE. I need to hold an intervention to convince you that you are sick.

Same goes for dinesh.

William Hays at 9:50PM on Feb 24th 2008

9. Next, Karl Rove will be telling us that McCain fathered a *gasp* black baby!

The right's been discrediting McCain for years and years, and the dittohead lemmings just lap it up. So, really, why the hell should what the New York Times say be treated any differently from what the Bushies said?

Freakin' hypocrites.

Dan at 9:52PM on Feb 24th 2008

10. YOU MEAN THAT THAT THE "OLD GRAY" LADY CAN STILL GET EXCITED. OH, I WROTE THIS BEFORE I GOT TO THE "FICTION" PART. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT GENUINE EXCITEMENT AND PLEASURE AT DOING GOOD, FUNDAMENTAL REPORTING OF THE NEWS IS BEYOND A VERY "OLD", AND VERY "GRAY" LADY, IN THE FINAL, BUT NOT "GOLDEN" DAYS OF HER EXISTENCE. OH WELL, THERE'S ALWAYS "CLONING."

Strong at 10:03PM on Feb 24th 2008

11. YOU MEAN THAT THAT THE "OLD GRAY" LADY CAN STILL GET EXCITED. OH, I WROTE THIS BEFORE I GOT TO THE "FICTION" PART. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT GENUINE EXCITEMENT AND PLEASURE AT DOING GOOD, FUNDAMENTAL REPORTING OF THE NEWS IS BEYOND A VERY "OLD", AND VERY "GRAY" LADY, IN THE FINAL, BUT NOT "GOLDEN" DAYS OF HER EXISTENCE. OH WELL, THERE'S ALWAYS "CLONING."

Strong at 10:03PM on Feb 24th 2008

12. Great work as always, Dinesh. Keep fighting the good fight. Slowly but surely, these ridiculous publications like the NYT are being shown for what they are.

Matt at 10:05PM on Feb 24th 2008

13. We Libs don't really care if McCain had a sexual relationship with Iseman ... in fact we are rather surprised. We were beginning to think that Republican sexual proclivities ran in a different direction.

It's just that we thought that McCain was the anti-loobyist when in fact his campaign advisores are mostly lobbyists! Charlie Black made the rounds of television networks to defend McCain against charges that he has been tainted by his relationship with a lobbyist. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.

Jim at 10:31PM on Feb 24th 2008

14. "Do you not that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of god? Do not be decieved: Neither the sexualy immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male porostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor SLANDERERS nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god"-- 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Dinesh this is from your book. Are you guilty of any of theese 'actions'?... look at the capitalized parts.

mac at 10:40PM on Feb 24th 2008

15. ATHEIST

Reply to: Incredible? Absurd? Actually, this fictitious article is very, very similar to the actual article that the New York Times ran on John McCain. The key phrases in

*** my made-up account ****

are directly lifted from the Times' actual account Dinesh
____________

And that's how the New Testament was created.

There were stories about the deity of Julius Caesar, and the virgin birth of Alexander the Great.

The New Testament writers were dishonest dimwits, just like Dinesh.

They took an existing account, changed the name to "Jesus," and pretended it was their own work.

dinesh, your dishonest is becoming MORE obvious as the day goes on. You saw nothing wrong with posting a LIE on AOL, that people have to read down to the FIFTH paragraph before they are told it's a lie.

Bad Dinesh. Bad, bad, Dinesh. No responsible journalist or scholar does this. Ever.

William Hays at 11:42PM on Feb 24th 2008

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.