The Times: No Nose for News on Biden's "International Crisis" Comment
On Tuesday, Times' reporter Michael Powell mentioned Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden's striking assertion (the top story on the Drudge Report early Tuesday afternoon)that foreign forces would generate a crisis to test the mettle of Barack Obama:
More than 1,000 miles away, in Belton, Mo., Mr. McCain freshened his criticism of Mr. Obama as too untested to be president by seizing on remarks from Mr. Obama's running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., that an international crisis might test a new Obama administration.
Mr. McCain asserted that Mr. Biden had told donors Sunday that in a crisis, Obama and Biden supporters "would have to stand with them because it wouldn't be apparent that Senator Obama would have the right response."
Mr. Biden, according to remarks recorded and transcribed by ABC News from a fund-raiser in San Francisco, had said: "Mark my words: it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking.
"We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Dan Rather himself (who knows something about political double standards from all his years of liberal bias as CBS anchor) said that Biden's outburst "would be above the fold in most newspapers today" if said by Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. So how did the Times play it?
Certainly not above the fold; instead, it was buried in the 11th paragraph of the Powell story on A-18, under the headline "Obama Briefly Leaving Trail to See Ill Grandmother."
