Thursday, February 28, 2008
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Shocking: More Weak Reporting From the New York Times
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Posted by:
Jonathan Garthwaite at
10:21 AM
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Did you know that there is major debate taking place whether John McCain is constitutionally permitted to be president?
Well, according to the NYT:
"McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office." and
"whether he qualifies as natural-born has been a topic of Internet buzz for months, with some declaring him ineligible while others assert that he meets all the basic constitutional qualifications — a natural-born citizen at least 35 years of age with 14 years of residence." But the 1,200 words or so in the story never actually quote a single scholar, analyst, political operative, editorial page or even a blogger who is making the case. Perhaps there are bloggers discussing the issue, Democratic operative planting stories to take McCain off message, or disgruntled conservative activists just trying to cause McCain a little of the same frustration he has caused them, but the NYT doesn't bother to actually track one of them down and put them on the record.
Once again the New York Times shows its willingness to publish just about anything without even the smallest degree of journalistic thoroughness.
The New York Times -- Spitball Journalism At Its Finest.
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When I read the news each morning, I review a wide variety of sites and the facts eventually boil out when I find common information in multiple sites. Compare the NY Times to FoxNews or the BBC to the Washington Times and eventually, hopefully, journalists with obvious left or right persuasions agree on the details of the story.
It has become very obvious that honest investigative journalism died when corporate conglomerates took over media outlets and demanded profits from newsrooms... so we now get pop celebrity garbage alongside important news as a means of playing to the simple minded.
It is unfortunate that bias has entered the media. FoxNews.com, NewsMax.com and similar outlets are so obviously right wing. TownHall Magazine may only be preaching to the choir unless you distance yourself from political bias and report the wide variety of opinions that exist within most stories, left and right.
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"Did you know that there is major debate taking place whether John McCain is constitutionally permitted to be president?"
I wouldn't call it a major debate, but there is a debate out there.
I have received two differently worded, rather lengthly, e-mails that question Senator McCain's citizenship.
A Google search of the term "McCain citizenship" returns over 410,000 hits.
I started to write the arguments pro and con about his citizenship, for those who had not heard about this before, but then I came across this posting which makes the arguments with a lot more detail than I could:
http://stubbornfacts.us/politics/2008_election/mccains_elig ibility
Senator McCain's unique circumstance of not having been born literally "in the United States", makes for an interesting discussion, but I don't believe he is disqualified from being president. |
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You should be a supervisor or maybe a managing editor at the NY(all the news that's fit to print)Times. |
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Prior to the 1978 treaty that transferred it to Panama, the Canal Zone had a governor appointed by the POTUS; Congress created a Canal Zone Federal District Court which was a part of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, every 4 years it sent a delegation to the Democratic National Convention, it had members on the Democratic National Committee (the GOP did not have such representation, but neither did Guam or Samoa); its flag was Old Glory; its laws were Federal statutes, and Panama had no jurisdiction over the territory. Not until 1965, when riots broke out after Panamanian students entered the Zone and attempted to raise the flag of Panama, did LBJ agree to open negotiations with Panama change the Canal Zone's status as US territory.
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The Panama Canal was under U.S. jurisdiction at the time of McCain's birth.
This "story" is a 'no-brainer'---literally, as in, the NY Times has 'no brains.'
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The Times provides misleading over-hyped journalism for the incurious reader. Nobody does worse reporting better. |
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... there was a cintilla of substance to this claim because I would LOVE to see McCain forced out of the picture.
Unfortunately, there is NO truth to this story. McCain is as eligible to run for POTUS as every illegal alien baby born on U.S. soil. Both are free and clear. |
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It seems funny that Townhall would have such a problem with the NYT when there are serious (and some trivial) errors which go uncorrected on this site. The fact is, this blog is a political mouthpiece for hate.
By the way, I do enjoy your tee-shirt ads. However, if those ads appeared in the NYT there'd be an outrage -- less for the content of the shirts (any dimwit 8 year-old can come up with a tee-shirt slogan) but more for the pure objectification of women. |
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Look at it from a journalist's perspective. They can either:
1. Spend hours or days meticulously researching, digging into, challenging, and vetting stories. Or they can:
2. Take five minutes and print press releases, administration propaganda, and third-hand internet rumors without question as gospel truth.
Either option pays the same.
Psst, Judith Miller. I heard a rumor from a friend, whose cousin knows a guy who knows John McCain's barber who said that John is actually a vanguard for a force of invading Venusians who beamed Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction to the moon for future use in their war against the Netherlands. |
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