While the New York Times is taking fire from the right and the McCain campaign for running the story on McCain’s corrupt ties to lobbyist Vicki Iseman, it is critically important to remember that the Times was not alone in this story. The Washington Post, shortly after the Times story was published online, ran their own version of the piece. While the Post piece had been updated to include the timing of the Times publication and some details included therein, it was clear that the Post had been sitting on their story as well. The Post piece included original reporting – the fact that McCain’s Senate office had banned Iseman from entering – that could not have been done in the short time between the two stories’ publication. The Times piece was published around 8:30pm Wednesday night, the Post piece was online by around 10:30pm.

The New Republic will also be releasing their full story on the McCain scandal and how the Times sat on it for months. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were additional details in it about the corruption and sex side of the McCain/Iseman scandal.

In short, charges of the Times smearing McCain just don’t hold water. This is a big story that, by the end of the day, will have had major original reporting of the same story line by three prominent publications, including the two most important newspapers in the country.