Times Trashes Cindy McCain

It’s not enough for America’s “newspaper of wretched” to smear John McCain and Sarah Palin. In an October 18 “news” story, “Behind McCain, Outsider in Capital Wanting Back In,” it went after the candidate’s wife, Cindy McCain.

In the guise of a profile piece, The Times rehashed Mrs. McCain’s past addiction to pain-killers - a story that was old news 20 years ago.

It also reported that John and Cindy spend much of their time apart - he in Washington, she in their Arizona home. This is so common for Congressmen and their wives that’s it’s hardly worth noting. But The Times does so in such a way as to insinuate that there’s a problem with their marriage.

Jodi Cantor, co-author of the profile, even tried to contact a friend of the McCains’ 16-year-old daughter, to see what dirt she could dig up on the family.

FROM: Jodi Cantor (NYT Reporter)

TO: Unnamed 16 year old facebook

September 29 at 7:21pm

I saw on facebook that you went to Xavier, and if you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you some advice about a story. I’m a reporter at the New York Times, writing a profile of Cindy McCain, and we are trying to get a sense of what she is like as a mother. So I’m reaching out to fellow parents at her kids’ schools. My understanding is that some of her older kids went to
Brophy/Xavier, but I’m trying to figure out what school her 16 year old daughter Bridget attends— and a few people said it was PCDS. Do you know if that’s right? Again, we’re not really reporting on the kids, just seeking some fellow parents who can talk about what Mrs. McCain is like.

Also, if you know anyone else who I should talk to— basically anyone who has encountered Mrs. McCain and might be able to share impressions— that would be great.

Thanks so much for any help you can give me.

Jodi Kantor
Political correspondent
New York Times
kantor@nytimes.com

Statement from McCain Spokesman Michael Goldfarb:

“Today the New York Times launched yet another in a
series of vicious attacks on Senator John McCain, this time targeting not the candidate, but his wife Cindy. Under the guise of a ‘profile’ piece, the New York Times fails to cover any new ground or provide any discernible value to the reader other than to portray Mrs. McCain in the worst possible light. Though Mrs. McCain’s battle with drug addiction and even her miscarriages are again reported, the paper entirely ignores a life devoted to family and charity work in the most impoverished and violent corners of the world— except when a detail can be quibbled with so as to imply some kind of deceit. This campaign made every effort to share personal accounts of Mrs. McCain’s good works with the paper, but apparently they were deemed unfit for publication in the New York Times. This is gutter journalism at its worst — an unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate’s spouse.

“In order to assemble this barrage of petty and personal attacks, the New York Times employed tactics that are obviously unprofessional and almost certainly unethical. This campaign has obtained a copy of an email sent by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor to a 16-year-old girl and friend of Bridget McCain, the youngest of the McCain children. Ms. Kantor sought to dupe the unsuspecting minor by soliciting ‘advice’ on how best to approach the story, as if a top-flight investigative reporter at the New York Times would need the assistance of an underage girl in writing a hit piece.[emphasis mine]

“The New York Times has stooped lower than this campaign ever imagined possible in an attempt to discredit a woman whose only apparent sin is being married to the man that would oppose that paper’s preferred candidate, Barack Obama, in his quest for the Presidency. It is a black mark on the record of a paper that was once widely respected, but is now little more than a propaganda organ for the Democratic party. The New York Times has accused John McCain of running a dishonorable campaign, but today it is plain to see where the real dishonor lies.”

Good point. A few more questions you won’t see the “mainstream” media bring up (from later in the article)...

“We will wait in vain for The Times to unleash its investigative pit bulls on the personal lives of Barack and Michelle Obama, including: 1. Who supplied Obama with drugs when he was an addict? 2. What substances did he use besides cocaine? 3. When did his addiction end? Was he still doing drugs as an Illinois state senator? 4. Why has “Mr. Compassion” done nothing to help his poor relatives in Kenya? 5. How close is Michelle to former terrorist Bernardine Dohrn? And 6. How did the “black power” ideology Michelle embraced as an undergraduate at Princeton - combined with 19 years of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons - shape her attitudes toward America and white people?”

My letter to Jody.........

Jody:

You are yet another slimy pig’s hole in the world of columnists who work without any integrity while trying to get a “lead” on a story. Your attempts to get information from a minor to trash Cindy McCain is so disgustingly typical that I can hardly justify being angry. Yet, I am!!

You New York Times “writers” (and I use that term loosely), fall within the category of dogs that “scoot” across the floor to your next story to being outright liars.

You’re a nasty piece of work.

Stacy P.

Southern California

Boy, that felt good.

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