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I call BS on the NYT story on McCain and the lobbyist.

I have in the past warned that the NYT would be running this story -- which was widely known to be under investigation -- and that the timing of it would be bad for McCain. What I could not imagine was that it would be such a weakly sourced story, with such incredibly weak "charges" involved. Even if the sources had been good, which they aren't, this would have been a big nothingburger of a story. The supposed "favoritism" involved was hardly enough even to raise an eyebrow in other circumstances. And the reports on the nature of the supposed relationship were so vague as to be almost meaningless. On top of that, it's all eight years old -- nothing new here. But, and here is the point, the sourcing on this story is WAY too weak to hang such a potentially explosive story on.

Readers here will know that I have been a strong critic of McCain. I remain a critic. But this story is trash. Even if the underlying story IS true, about which it is impossible to know, the NYT did not report enough, or with good enough sources, for anybody to have any real idea whether it is true. In short, this story ought not to have been run -- not unless it had more facts and better sourcing. It is a disservice to both McCain and to the country for the Times to print this nothingburger of a story. I call foul on the Times -- and so should every fair-minded American.