Why The Globe Didn't Run the Times' McCain Story

When The New York Times ran its much-criticized story (even the paper's own ombudsman attacked it in his column on Sunday) about Sen. John McCain and his relationship with a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman, one of the papers that didn't run the Times piece was The Boston Globe. Instead, the Globe went with an update on the story from The Washington Post.

Which was a bit unusual since the Globe is owned by the Times. When asked for a comment on why the Globe did this, editor Marty Baron said "no comment."

But according to an item in the Top of the Ticket blog in the Los Angeles Times political section, there was a reason. Andrew Malcolm wrote that a senior editor from the Globe contacted him with an interesting bit of information. While the Globe's website did contain a link to the original Times story, the Globe editor sent him another link - to a transcript of a chat with Walter V. Robinson, a Globe investigative reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, editor and now a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

The chat is about a series of articles that Robinson wrote on Jan. 5, Jan. 7 and Jan. 9 in 2000 about McCain's connections to Paxson Communications (one of the firms represented by Iseman) and other special interests.

"Robinson found McCain traveling on corporate jets owned by special interests to give speeches against special interests within days of receiving political contributions from the special interests' executives. McCain and the executives denied any quid pro quo, and noted his actions were legal at the time."

Which, we can now understand [Malcolm writes], is a real reason behind the Globe not publishing the New York Times' "scoop." Because it wasn't news. The Boston paper, a Times subsidiary, had already exposed the same issues and people and denials regarding McCain in articles written by its own reporter fully eight years ago.

"What's it like," one of the online chatters asks the now retired reporter, "to be first on a story and then see some other outfit redo it and get huge national play?"

To which Robinson simply replies, "Imitation is the highest...etc."

2:00 PM ET | 02-25-2008 | permalink