You often hear from conservatives that the mainstream media are in the tank for Obama. I wonder how many conservatives are going to object to a startling admission by the New York Times.
[Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times] told Politico that the paper was motivated to report out the [former 60s radical William] Ayers link because the McCain campaign has been pushing it — not the other way around.
“We’ve reported the Ayers relationship before, and we had it on our ‘to do’ list for a while to take a more comprehensive look,” Keller said, in an e-mail. “When the McCain campaign began to make it a major focal point of ads and stump speeches, we decided the time was right.”
“It didn’t take any prodding,” Keller continued. “When the conversation on something controversial reaches a certain level, curious readers look to The Times to help them sort the facts from the fictions and figure out what to make of it. That’s what we did.”
In other words, because John McCain wanted to spread the story — one that has been reported many times since the connection between Obama and Ayers first surfaced — the Times obliged.
I’ll say this ’til I’m blue in the face: Demand the media cover a a story you want and they will oblige. They have relinquished any pretense of being a filter. They are simply a conduit for whatever campaigns want, if the story is salacious or likely to be controversial.
Let’s prepare for the in-depth story of whether evolution or creationism is the true science.