A McCain blogger has fired another salvo in the fight over who played what "race card" ——- and his target, this time, is not just Barack Obama but the financial viability of the New York Times. The incident suggests the McCain camp intends to keep making the media an explicit issue in this year's presidential race — even though the Arizona Senator has enjoyed a warm relationship with the Washington press corps for years.

As Evie observed this morning, in an online commentary yesterday the Times editorial board denounced perceived racial overtones in McCain's "Celeb" ad. In repsonse, Michael Goldfarb wrote in the official McCain campaign blog "The McCain Report" that the Times editorialists "have all the intelligence and reason of the average Daily Kos diarist sitting at home in his mother's basement and ranting into the ether between games of dungeons and dragons." Goldfarb also linked to a hilarious Slate.com spoof of a feverish YouTuber's defense of Britney Spears — only redubbed to defend Barack Obama.

But Goldfarb went another step, writing: "If the shareholders of The New York Times ever wonder why the paper's ad revenue is plummeting and its share price tanking, they need look no further than the hysterical reaction of the paper's editors to any slight, real or imagined, against their preferred candidate."

Now, I've covered the newspaper industry for years. I'm well aware of the plight of such papers as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe (owned by the New York Times Co.) and the Newark Star-Ledger, all of which are currently losing money. I've covered the woes of the Tribune newspaper company, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Dallas Morning News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which all appear to be in precarious financial circumstances — and I can safely say that the ideological slant of their respective editorial boards is relatively far down the list of causes. Newer sources of news and information, including cable channels and websites, have siphoned off readers and advertising dollars.

Goldfarb's remarks should be taken as the kind of hyperbole not unknown to campaign officials of all stripes — or opinionated bloggers. Such as Goldfarb himself, who was the well-regarded online editor of the conservative publication The Weekly Standard until he joined the McCain camp. His posting suggests a new twist on a time-honored Republican theme: Target the Media.