According to Politico, Obama spokesman Bill Burton called Schmidt's attack
on the Times "laughable." Burton released a list of 42 "probing stories"
from the Times. Among these allegedly hard-hitting exposés were the
following headlines: "In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice," "Charisma
and a Search for Self in Obama's Hawaii Childhood" and "In Illinois, Obama
Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd."
It's amazing the Obama campaign survived such an onslaught.
Meanwhile, the Times ran a scurrilous, unsubstantiated story suggesting
McCain had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a lobbyist. Its
coverage of Palin has been so heinous, Times readers could be forgiven for
thinking the Alaska governor is a transvestite in a Klan robe who speaks in
tongues.
The New York Times is clearly rooting for Barack Obama (just as it was
rooting for McCain against Bush in 2000). As Kurtz has demonstrated, the
Times has soft-pedaled Obama's ties to William Ayers, an unrepentant
domestic terrorist whose former outfit, The Weathermen, bombed the Pentagon
and other American targets.
Times editorials read like Obama press releases. On McCain's controversial
ad criticizing Obama's vote for a sex-ed bill in the Illinois legislature,
the Times proclaimed that McCain "flat-out lies" and argued that "at most,
kindergarteners were to be taught the dangers of sexual predators." A plain
reading of the actual bill shows that the Times is flat-out lying.
Attacking the press serves several purposes, not least of which is that it
just feels good. It also galvanizes the base and informs swing voters to be
more skeptical of what the press tells them. Of course, such griping can
backfire, causing the press to become even more hostile, though it's hard to
imagine what that would look like. But a good hard smack on the nose can
offer some rewards.
For instance, during the Jeremiah Wright controversy, the Times refused to
report that Obama's mentor and pastor had ever said "God damn America," even
though that exclamation was central to the firestorm. But the day after the
McCain campaign declared war on the Times, the quote appeared on the front
page, six months late and in a story about McCain's negative campaigning.
Such are the meager spoils of war.