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 18 of 19)

Previous 15 Comments | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

256. The trouble with your statement is that this country was founded on Christian principles >>>

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionist, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!" Patrick Henry

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." John Quincy ]]

George Washington called religious belief indispensable to the prosperity of our democracy.

William Penn said, "Men must choose to be governed by God or condemn themselves to be ruled by tyrants.

And when asked what caused the Civil War, President Lincoln said, "We have forgotten God."

We have no government arm in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.
John Adams
1798.

Thomas J Gassett at 12:36PM on Feb 26th 2008

257. Oh, come on Gassett. For every "pro-Christian" quote you can come up with, there are 10x that against it.

"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."--- Benjamin Franklin, Works, Vol. VII, p. 75

"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" --- John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816

"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." --- Thomas Jefferson, from "Notes on Virginia"

www.barefootsworld.net/founding.html

Easy peasy.

K at 12:48PM on Feb 26th 2008

258. He invaded Granada. For nothing.

To take our minds off of Beirut.

It's an old magicians's trick.

xx

THANK YOU for reminding me! I was saying that at the time! My line was that republicans were great waging war against countries with one area code.

Clif Kuplen at 12:53PM on Feb 26th 2008

259. Thomas J Gassett,
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.
John Adams (1798)"
Everett (1966) argues that Adams was not a deist, but he used deistic terms in his speeches and writing. He believed in the essential goodness of the creation, but did not believe in the divinity of Christ or that God intervened in the affairs of individuals. Although not anti-clerical, he advocated the separation of church and state. He later denounced the deism of political opponent Thomas Paine.
It's no biggie, I don't care. It's interesting that you've been on this blog almost a year ago using the exact same cut-and-paste, yet you slander others for giving the blog too much attention.

Mokele-Mobembe at 1:34PM on Feb 26th 2008

260. William Penn said, "Men must choose to be governed by God or condemn themselves to be ruled by tyrants."

tyrant n. An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions. A ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner.

It is doublethink to imagine that God is ruling and yet there is democracy.

Penn is being quoted out of context here. Anyone using this quote is using it disingenuously.

"Penn, who was involved in the project but himself remained in England, drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement. He guaranteed free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn

It is hard to imagine that Penn should, in 1688 A.D. be anachronistically accounting for an atheistic point of view, yet Gassett et al, disingenuously, want us to imagine exactly that.

not-pboyfloyd at 1:53PM on Feb 26th 2008

261. Clif is a pedantic, long winded fool whose entire insignificant life is spent filling up blogs. Take a look, at all the clif tracks cluttering up these blogs. I doubt Clif sleeps and I'm sure he doesn't have a job. I hope he never finds out that no one bothers to read his never ending screeds ... he just might off himself.

xxx

Well, I guess that'll have to do for an apology. Reagan was a treasonous piece of shit, wasn't he? Since you didn't answer when I showed you where bin Laden stated he was emboldened when reagan cut and ran, I guess you concede the point.

No, thomas, I don't have a job. I'm retired and enjoying it extremely. When I have time, I'm interested in infiltrating the blogosphere and it's frankly fun to watch you implode time after time when your talking points get sunk, like now.

If paul ever crawls back out of the woodwork I'm far from done with him too.

You can stop reading now, thomas because this doesn't concern you.

When gerald ford took office, he was lauded by both parties for expanding his viewpoint beyond his position as senator immediately. Therefore his voting record in the senate had literally nothing to do with how he addressed the presidency.

This could also be said about John Kennedy. When you are running for office of President, what you did on behalf of your state and where you voted as a representative of a state must necessarily change.

Back to Barack Obama, the salient characteristic he possesses is Leadership. Certainly his presidential platform is appealing and very doable if he is capable of uniting people as I believe a leader can.

I remember how John Kennedy could motivate a nation through his words. We protected ourselves with fallout shelters, joined the peace corps and put a man on the moon two years ahead of schedule, largely because of Kennedy's ability to motivate a space program.

Some people are born leaders, some made leaders and some have leadership thrust upon them as the saying goes. Barack Obama is one of the former. They happen in history, the Alexanders.

I dug John Stewart's gag from the oscars on obama's name. You may remember he says, the unsuccessful presidential bid of Gaydolph Titler.

Clif Kuplen at 2:11PM on Feb 26th 2008

262. #258
"My line was that republicans were great waging war against countries with one area code. "

Clif, try this, grab a telephone book and look at the list of International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD)area codes . Suprising how many countries only have one(1) area code . What the hey, Russia's dialing code is only one digit-- "7" , how's that for a small country. Clif, your comment may have sounded witty because many would not think to actually examine it. Oh, I did not bother with a phone book because that sort of information is ancient history to me. Be careful there are some out here who are not so easily impressed by one's postings.
There , now I have left you an opening, so flail away.

M2D5 at 4:10PM on Feb 26th 2008

263. Every time I read posts from both sides listing quote from the founding fathers in an attempt to credit or discredit the notion that we are a "christian nation", what runs through my mind is:

I don't really care. I don't care what ANY of them SAID. What I care about is what they put in the documents that laid the groundwork for our country.

That's what really matters.

FL Chick at 3:00PM on Feb 26th 2008

264. FL Chick,

Agreed. It's just very irksome when fundies try to take over the government and claim that it is what the founding fathers intended/would have wanted, when it clearly is not.

Did most of the founding fathers believe in (a) god? Yes. Was it the Christian god? No. Many founding fathers held contempt for Christianity and its clergymen, which is why I chose to post those 3 quotes in particular.

K at 3:09PM on Feb 26th 2008

265. m2d5, the only opening you have left there is the utter lack of a sense of humor. Maybe if I said reagan was good at winning wars with countries with one zip code instead? or countries with an annual GDP that wouldn't buy a 4 bedroom home in San Clemente? Or countries that moonlight as inventory crews at walmart?

Clif Kuplen at 6:26PM on Feb 26th 2008

266. K at 12:48PM on Feb 26th 2008

The quotes you selected have absolutewly nothing to do with Gassett's contention that the government was founded on Christian principles. You have avoided answering him by quoting certain individuals opinions on Christianty that do not address the issue he raised.

Marlinj Brown at 6:51PM on Feb 26th 2008

267. M2D5 at 4:10PM on Feb 26th 2008

We have known for a long time that Clif makes things up and expects people to take them as truth. If he researched anything at all about dialing codes, he would notice that to dial internationally, you must have a country code, which can range from 1 (US) to as many as three digits. This is not arbitrary, but rather reveals that as a country's phone system was developed and came to connect with the rest of the world, it was assigned the next available code number. Mr.Kuplen only reveals the astounding depth of his ignorance yet again.

Marlinj Brown at 7:11PM on Feb 26th 2008

268. Clif Kuplen at 12:53PM on Feb 26th 2008
"258. He invaded Granada. For nothing."

Apparently, your head was stuck up your alimentary canal when the
Grenada RESCUE MISSION occurred. American students in Grenada were
rescued from the Cuban Army. Grenada, according to treaty, had the
right to ask the US to intervene and stop the Cubans from exporting
communism to other countries in the Caribbean. Try reading real
history for a change and not the revisionist propaganda history
offered by the liberals.

Marlinj Brown at 8:05PM on Feb 26th 2008

269. Wait. So are Klugman and Keller gay?

gary at 10:02PM on Feb 26th 2008

270. We have known for a long time that Clif makes things up and expects people to take them as truth.

xx

we? you got worms again?

name one thing I made up, you lying asshole. You didn't answer my challenge to find support for your alleged 'christian' origins of american government. This is also because you're a lying asshole.

Now look at what else you did.

xxxx

pparently, your head was stuck up your alimentary canal when the
Grenada RESCUE MISSION occurred.
xxx

If it had been, I could have looked you in your wrinkly brown tapered peanut studded face.

The 'rescue mission' was a full blown military invasion to protect some medical students - a couple of dozen, I think. There were no cubans involved just the grenadan soldiers under Hudson Austin who had effected a coup. I didn't need to read about it, you lying asshole, it was on the news every night and in every newspaper, you revisionist lying asshole. Were you even born yet? If you were, I rather imagine potty training was yet to come. It may still be for all I know. You're as anal retentive as gassett.

It was the original 'wag the dog' and was mainly to cover Reagan's ass after he cut and ran from Lebanon, you lying asshole.

You may have read the quote I provided from bin Laden in a 1996 ABC interview where he said Reagan's cowardice inspired him to attack the united states. If you want to discuss more of Reagan's foreign policy, that was just one thing. He literally invented Saddam Hussein, and we all know about the iran contra weapons deal that flooded our streets with cocaine.

Mccain is just more of the same. Remember who Osama bin Laden's choice for president was in 2004 - george w. bush.

But back to you, martin, you're a lying asshole. Why don't you tell me something I made up.

Clif Kuplen at 1:04AM on Feb 27th 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.