The Times' Mistake

Maybe I'm the only progressive in America who has a problem with the New York Times' rejection of Sen. John McCain's editorial on Iraq. McCain's piece was a direct rebuttal to an essay written by his presumptive opponent, Barack Obama. The Times Op-Ed editor David Shipley opined that McCain's editorial should "mirror" Obama's. Talk about spoon-feeding the right wing media machine an issue!

With a recent poll showing almost half the respondents believing the media is trying to help Obama win the presidency, you can almost hear talk radio hosts bellowing at the top of their lungs. And for what? The Times comes off sounding like a teacher telling a student to redo a science paper. Somehow, Shipley's explanation that Obama offered new information just isn't good enough. 

What ever happened to letting the piece run, and letting the people decide its merit? After all, McCain isn't writing a news story here. Nobody is going to confuse him with a journalist. That's why they call it Op-Ed. David Shipley says McCain should define victory in the editorial. Does he think Times readers can't figure that out for themselves?

It's heavy handed decisions like this that give fuel to the right wing's mantra that the media terminally biased in favor of liberal thinking.  Trouble is, it's all so unnecessary. Print the piece as written, and be done with it.

And I'm no fan of John McCain.