For the second time in six months, the Republican presidential nominee has started a row with The New York Times. When John McCain last battled the Gray Lady, his camp was accusing the newspaper of turning into a tawdry tabloid with a story that hinted he had an extramarital affair with a female lobbyist.
This time, the fight is over Iraq. McCain tried to respond to Barack Obama's guest column last week on his plan to withdraw most US troops within 16 months. But McCain's piece wasn't up to scratch with the paper's editors, who told the Drudge Report that it needed to "articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq".
Drudge duly reprinted McCain's column as it was submitted, including his misspelling of US army commander Jeffery Hammond's name. And given that American political reporters consider Drudge their de facto assignment editor, McCain's decision to leak his rejected column to the website may have given it more mileage than if the New York Times had actually printed the piece.
Interestingly, the newspaper's op-ed staff responded by leaving the door open to publishing a new version of his piece. But if the aftermath of McCain v Times, round 1, is any guide, the newspaper's reporters may need to watch out for a mysteriously full press plane the next time McCain goes on the road.
