Why Do Newspapers Keep Publishing Op-Eds by John McCain?

[n2doc]

by CONOR FRIEDERSDORF



America's most prestigious op-ed pages are run by highly accomplished editors who know a tight argument when they see one. They reject so many pieces each day that even a minor factual error or logical inconsistency is enough to doom a submission—at least a submission from someone who isn't part of the ruling class.

But a much less rigorous standard governs articles written by well-known politicians. Take John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona. I assume the op-eds he submits to The New York Times or Washington Post or Wall Street Journal are ghostwritten for him. But so long as McCain's byline is attached, the usual standards for subject-matter expertise, internally consistent argument, and factual accuracy are abandoned. In their place, newspaper readers get the ostensible benefit of knowing what a powerful person wants to be seen as thinking. The approach is widely accepted but journalistically indefensible.

For a thorough evisceration of McCain's most recent Times op-ed, co-bylined with Senator Lindsey Graham, see my colleague Peter Beinart's recent article. His critique of the authors' factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations is so persuasive I began to marvel that a reputable newspaper published the piece. Then I looked back at McCain's past contributions to prestigious newspapers. That he's still treated as a foreign-policy expert is not to opinion journalism's credit.

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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/why-do-newspapers-keep-publishing-op-eds-by-john-mccain/379512/

[MADem]

1. Because he is a senior senator, because he is old, because he has Vietnam/POW experience,

because he was a standard-bearer for the GOP and a more credible one than Romney (well, until he picked the Wasilla Wackadoodle as his running mate) and because if Obama says UP, he can be damn-tootin'-guar-ON-teed to say DOWN!! DOWN!!!

He provides what the papers like to call "contrast."

They might as well title all his op-eds "ARRRGH! ARRRGH! Get off my lawn!!" because all he does is rail ineffectually at anything the administration does or proposes.

I don't think they give much of a crap about journalistic defensibility. It's more like team sports, and McCain is the captain of the Fiery Assholes. This really IS the bottom line:

But McCain is not a prescient foreign-policy analyst, and newspapers should stop giving him a platform to confidently assert what will happen next in geopolitics. He thinks he knows his stuff. But his track record shows that he's emphatic in his pronouncements even when he is utterly, catastrophically wrong.

Good thing he didn't get elected! There sure as hell IS a difference between the parties...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Because he keeps writing them?

Or signing his name to stuff his staff writes for him.

Maybe if the other 99 senators were as prolific then his stuff wouldn't always be on the top of the pile.

[lpbk2713]

3. Cuz he's the great Amurkin what gave us Sarah Failin.

May he burn in hell for it too.

[oldandhappy]

4. I have wondered about this also.

And I have wondered about any and all comments which are 1) obviously unsubstantiated i.e. no footnotes, 2) all over the place in terms of logical argument, 3) clearly doctored or deliberately mis-quotes.

What happened to journalism? Donno. But I suspect money and clout and status. I want McCain held accountable for what he says. And I am a nobody so what I want disappears. Never the less -- I keep sending emails!

[bullwinkle428]

5. "Gotta keep catapultin' the propaganda!!"

[sabrina 1]

6. Because neither the NYT nor the WaPo ARE reputable news organizations? If the author started

from that factual premise, there would be no need to ask the question. No REPUTABLE news organization I am familiar with posts their propaganda drivel unless it is to make fun of it.

His critique of the authors' factual inaccuracies and misrepresentations is so persuasive I began to marvel that a reputable newspaper published the piece.

That is his problem. He hasn't yet grasped the fact than the Corporate Owned Media is not reputable.

Once he figures that out, he won't marvel anymore. He will not, eg bat an eyelid when he sees Sarah Palin's Op Eds in the NYT.

[Marr]

7. Very interesting pair of articles. However...

Given the nature and track record of corporate op-ed pages, I'd say the answer to his title question is pretty obvious. McCain's pieces are propaganda from the ruling faction. They don't have to be logically consistent or factually accurate because they're meant to sell policy, not illuminate a topic.

[Octafish]

8. The Powell Memorandum spelled it out.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/

...and the GOP started buying media Big Time. Kinda surprised The Atlantic doesn't bring it up.

[joeybee12]

9. Mclame is a dunce on foreign policy, on everything, in fact,

But the media...print and tv, always go to him for his opinion...they're complicit in his lies that lead to more deaths.