Today’s front page New York Times hack job ^[1] on John McCain is just the most recent flagrant example of how hopelessly biased the mainstream is in favor of liberals and their causes. As the Associated Press ^[2] points out neither the NYT story, nor the companion Washington Post pile on ^[3], even asserted “that there was a romantic relationship and offered no evidence that there was.” Unconcerned by the complete lack of any evidence of actual impropriety, the Times placed the insinuation of a romantic relationship in its lead. Contrast that approach with the Times reporting on Bill Clinton’s Juanita Broaddrick and Monica Lewinsky difficulties ^[4] which they reported on late and buried deep in the paper.

The hopelessly biased MSNBC followed the NYTs lead by breaking into the 7 PM EST re-run of Hardball to allow Daily Kos regular Keith Olbermann to read the report and call it “extraordinary. ^[5]” To make matters worse MSNBC then hosted a panel of experts who declared that the NYT actually did McCain a favor by holding the story until after the primaries and then releasing it early enough in the general campaign so he could properly refute it. While this is probably true it ignores the conservative critique of the media: that the MSM has been in the tank for McCain for years while it provides terribly biased coverage of conservatives. So yes, the story was optimally timed to help McCain. But it was also perfectly timed to hurt conservatives who were not given the opportunity to weigh this information during the primary process. Instead they had the story dumped on them after McCain had been anointed the presumptive nominee.

The Heritage Foundation has been a long ^[6] time ^[7] critic ^[8] of McCain’s position on campaign finance laws. Maybe now that, as The New Republic ^[9]‘s James Kirchick puts it the NYT is so clearly “in the tank for Obama,” McCain will rethink his position on laws that restrict the free speech rights of average citizens.

Quick Hits:

• Britain’s socialist National Health Service does not allow women to buy life saving anti-cancer medication ^[10] since free market supplemental care “would violate the philosophy of the health service by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones.”
• Phoenix police officers say a new policy requiring the police to ask the immigration status only of people under arrest does not go far enough ^[11] and could allow illegal immigrants to commit more crimes.
• Record numbers of Britons are leaving – many of them doctors, teachers and engineers – in the biggest exodus for almost 50 years ^[12] due in part to the nation’s high tax rates.
• The Los Angeles Times ^[13] reports that economists who have analyzed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s foreclosure crisis plans say neither offers a comprehensive solution but “that has not inhibited them from touting their populist credentials and tugging at voters’ heartstrings.”
• A California state judge has ordered a couple of Prius owners in Sunnyvale, to cut down eight redwood trees ^[14] to comply with California’s Solar Shade Act. Their neighbor had earlier succeeded in convincing prosecutors to file charges against the couple so he could adequately deploy his backyard solar panels.