N.Y. Times’ axing of McCain op-ed piece brings static

Much reaction this week after the New York Times refused to publish op-ed material about the Iraq war submitted by Sen. John McCain.   The Arizona Republican’s piece, sent to the newspaper four days after The Times ran an opinion piece on the same topic by Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.), was intended to present his side.

It comes at a time when there is a clear imbalance on coverage of the two presidential candidates.

Key print media, plus major TV networks’ news anchors are swarming around Obama on this week’s tour of the Mideast and Europe, while in Manchester, N.H. on Monday night, for example, just one reporter and one photographer were waiting for McCain as his campaign plane arrived.

Nixing McCain’s effort was David Shipley, The Times’ op-ed page editor.  Some have cited the turndown as an example of the newspaper’s political bias, a suspicion heightened by Shipley's background in the Clinton administration where he served from 1995 to 1997 as special assistant to the president and senior presidential speechwriter, notes Grumpy Editor.

An e-mail last Friday from Shipley to Michael Goldfarb, a member of McCain’s team, mentioned, “I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.”  Then he went on to say, “Let me suggest an approach” and, “It would be terrific to have an article from Sen. McCain that mirrors Sen. Obama’s piece.”

An op-ed editor suggesting an “approach” along with text that “mirrors” McCain’s rival as the U.S. presidential race heats up is not the way it’s done. It’s then not the true voice of the person whose name appears atop the op-ed piece.  Remember, one of the candidates will be moving into the White House in January.

On Monday, The Times explained its decision with:  “It is standard procedure on our op-ed page, and that of other newspapers, to go back and forth with an author on his or her submission.”

Somehow, however, The Times is forgetting that, unlike much inferior material that is directed to op-ed pages around the nation, both Obama and McCain have access to seasoned writers equal to top reporters on The Times staff.  Add to that, public relations experts and advisors who also take squints at proposed texts before they are dispatched to media.

Among the many comments at the The Times’ Web site, “Disco” asks:  “So how many times did the New York Times go ‘back and forth’ with Sen. Obama?  And how many ‘suggestions’ were made to his drafts?  Or was Mr. Obama’s submission treated like the 10 commandments, brought down from Moses, as the word of God?”