In response to your request for "hard news" stories.
By Mickey Kaus
Updated Thursday, March 4, 2004, at 7:19 PM PT
The NY Post's Page Six gossip column recently had an item noting that the wife of NYT executive editor Bill Keller--back when she was single--once went out with Senator John Kerry (who was then between wives). ... I trust Keller, unlike his predecessor, to play it straight when it comes to the Times' Kerry coverage. But NYT readers are certainly entitled to know about the connection. [Which way would that cut, were it to cut at all?--ed If Keller is a normal human being there would be a spectrum of possible biases ...
'He was a jerk, Bill'--against Kerry
'He was a nice guy'--for Kerry
'He was the greatest guy'--against Kerry!
P.S.: The response of the Kerry campaign was:
"Americans care about jobs, health care and national security, not gossip," declared Kerry spokesman David Wade. "John Kerry's coverage in the New York Times will be determined by his vision for the country and the fights he wages and nothing more."
Please! Wouldn't a less pompous and on-message--in a word, a less Lehanish--response, be more effective? Something like: "Yes, they went out when they were both single. So what?" ... Or are the Kerry flaks flexing their sound bites in preparation for actual potentially damaging "gossip" down the road?] |
