Pinch Sulzberger's Legacy

So the NYT has done it again. First, they leak every secret terrorist surveillance program they can sniff out, thereby compromising America's security, and prolonging the war, basically killing people! Now, after losing 2/3 or their circulation, they publish rumor and innuendo, completely unsubstantiated, against John McCain. This is also the same "newspaper" that relegated a credible rape accusation (see below) against Bill Clinton to the back pages, and more, ad nauseum. And they wonder why they are known today as the "drive-by" media?...T

The decline and fall of the New York Times accelerates, with today's anonymously-sourced hit piece on John McCain. I will leave to others like Rick Moran and Ed Morrissey the debunking of the story itself. What concerns me is the manner in which the CEO of the organization has jettisoned standards that once would have ruled out publication of such material.

"A fish rots from the head" goes an old Chinese saying. If it is true, as reported, that the story was controversial within the Times, and only ran because the paper feared that The New Republic would publicize the office politics at the Times over publication of the story, the Sulzberger's responsibility is all the greater. His inability to set clear guidelines, hire capable editors, and maintain newsroom harmony and discipline was about to be exposed to the public. To protect his hind quarters, he went with a disastrously bad story...Such an approach (is inconsistent) with the Times' previous practice of seriously downplaying similar and much worse stories about Bill Clinton's sexual behavior...
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