America's Favorite High School Newspaper

The longer I live, the more I believe that life is just like high school. The same, arrogant, clueless dopes who ran the Student Government eventually grow up to run America. And, they run it the same clueless, arrogant way.

And remember the snarky gits who ran the student paper, trying to whip up campus anger of the sugary snacks in the vending machines? They're now running the New York Times.

I have no idea what the truth is regarding John McCain and the blonde lobbyist the NYTimes is writing about today. I suppose it's possible that, back when McCain was a youthful 64 years old, he was puttin' the moves on the ladies. I suppose it's possible that he was cutting deals in the US Senate on behalf of her clients in order to get into her undergarments.

Sure, all this is possible. But unfortunately for the NYTimes...it's not IN THE STORY! They got nuthin'. Bupkis. This is the entire story: "I talked to a guy who said he thought it LOOKED like McCain might be having a naughty relationship so we told her to stay away, even though we never saw anything." So the NYTimes is reduced to reporting a literal rumor as a news story.

I'm not sure that even a high school paper would do that.

The NYTimes defends itself by saying "Hey, the story is really about McCain's corruption problem." Then they fail to give a single example of said corruption. Instead, they show just how clueless they are with "reporting" like this:

By 2002, he had succeeded in passing the McCain-Feingold Act, which transformed American politics by banning “soft money,” the unlimited donations from corporations, unions and the rich that were funneled through the two political parties to get around previous laws. [emphasis added]

It did? Really? Gee, I've been watching the 2008 race since, well, 2004, and I haven't noticed a transformation. Instead, we've seen candidates from Ron Paul to Barack Obama setting new records for campaign donations. Mrs. Bill Clinton and Sen. Obama have each raised more than $100 million already, and Obama is almost certain to break his pledge to take taxpayer campaign money in lieu of private donations. He could raise $300 million by November.

Some transformation.

The New York Times is already a joke from a journalism perspective. Their intentional misreporting and newspage bias has been so thoroughly presented that no honest observer can claim it is anything more than a propaganda outlet for the American Left.

But running stories about rumors? If it were a high school paper, the editor would get an "F."

Alas, the standards at the New York Times aren't that high.