Tom MaGuire Watches Carl Hulse Perform a Hit on John McCain

Tom MaGuire watches Carl Hulse perform a hit on John McCain:

Foe of Earmarks Has a Pet Cause of His Own: WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — It is just the sort of parochial spending request that might lead Senator John McCain, nemesis of pork barrel projects, to give somebody an earful. The bill would direct $2 million annually over five years to establish a center at a specified law school to honor a renowned jurist from the state. While the goal may be laudable, some critics say, the measure is a classic case of lawmakers' trying to funnel money directly to a home-state institution for a project that should find financing elsewhere. But it is doubtful that Mr. McCain will weigh in against the idea this time: the legislation to support the project is being sponsored by him and Senator Jon Kyl, Arizona Republicans who are among those aggressively promoting new rules for handling Congressional spending requests... the center, a tribute to the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist...

As Carl Hulse knows, and any careful reader will figure out, the Times is blurring two related issues - "pork", which we will describe as "wasteful" Federal spending that ought better to be done at a lower level of government, privately, or not at all"; and "earmarks", which are a particularly surreptitious Congressional tool for sneaking pork into bills.... No one in the article thinks it is an earmark, or that this push by McCain contradicts his position taken on earmarks. But with careful phrasing Mr. Hulse managed to preserve the suspense for several paragraphs. And Dead Tree readers will note that this page A11 story gets a promotional blurb on the front page: "Pork Critic seeks $10 Million".

So why is the Times turning on their own St. John with this silly attack? Have they moved on from McCain-Feingold, and are they positioning themselves for their endorsement of Hillary in 2008? Who knows?

As long as reporters for daily newspapers play these silly games of misleading their readers, people are going to continue to get their news and information from respected weblogs--like that of Tom MaGuire.

I wonder if we will get an apology from the New York Times, or Carl Hulse? I'm not holding my breath.