Times Editors And Reporters Taking Reader Questions About McCain Story
February 22, 2008 -- 9:34 AM EST // //
Via Romenesko, this is noteworthy: The editors and reporters who worked on the big and controversial McCain story that ran in The Times yesterday are taking questions about the piece from the public.
Good. We've obviously seen plenty of instances lately of reporters and editors taking reader questions, but here you have the members of the team who put this piece together making themselves available to answer questions about the article.
Here's what I would ask:
* If the paper is going to report that anonymous sources were worried that McCain might have had an affair, isn't it incumbent on the paper to come closer to establishing whether or not it actually happened, and share the evidence one way or the other with readers? If the paper is unable to establish whether or not it actually occurred, isn't it irresponsible to simply report that anonymous sources say it might have happened?
* The New Republic reported yesterday that in December Times executive editor Bill Keller told the piece's reporters that he was holding the piece because he could not secure documentary proof of the affair. Is this true? If so, what changed since then? Given that the article contained no such proof, why did he then decide to run the piece?
* Why include any mention of the affair at all? Couldn't the piece have run without this element? Would the piece been diminished in any way without it? Indeed, mightn't the piece have been stronger without it, since the anonymously sourced suggestion of a romantic affair served as a distraction from the arguably more important dimension of the piece -- i.e., the reporting on the politician-lobbyist relationship and the broader pattern at play here?
* Didn't inclusion of badly sourced intimations about an affair make it easier for McCain -- and the Republican National Committee -- to attack the piece and try to discredit what was valid and solid in it? Does Keller now regret including the affair stuff?
You can ask your questions right here.
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