“Yellow journalism at the Times” the headline said (referring to the New York Times, not the Arkansas Times, conspicuously yellow-free), and you wondered where such headlines were when the New York Times was recklessly maligning President Bill Clinton and his wife, or when it was trying to justify an unjustifiable war waged by a president more to the NYT’s liking.

What makes the corporate media angry enough to turn on one of their own is unfavorable coverage of Republican politicians. The NYT usually avoids offending in that regard, being Republican itself for most of its life, but pundits were rankled by an article suggesting improprieties, including sexual impropriety, in Sen. John McCain’s past. Before the day was out, the mainstream media’s consensus was that the NYT had violated journalistic ethics, and that public backlash would benefit McCain’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Some warned that the NYT’s lapse might encourage others to print or broadcast something similarly disparaging of Democratic presidential candidates: “There are lots and lots of cheap, ugly, unverified rumors about Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton out there. In Clinton’s case, they have been floating around for years.” In Clinton’s case, they’ve been published already. Her family has been savagely attacked from every possible angle. John McCain pitched in, with his famous quip that the reason Chelsea Clinton (then a child) was so ugly was that her father was Janet Reno. Later, it’s said, McCain apologized to Chelsea’s real father. How do you apologize for something like that? How do you accept an apology for something like that? Rush Limbaugh and others joked about Chelsea’s appearance too. If there’s a Guinness record for “Little Girl Most Ridiculed by Grown Men,” Chelsea surely holds it.

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People who never peeped a word of protest about mistreatment of the Clintons by the New York Times are tearful over the printing of a less-than-adoring article about John McCain. American politics is still being played under the Clinton Rules: You can say anything about the Clintons. They can’t say anything back.

The State Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission gives commissions a good name. The nine members voted unanimously last week to deny permission for an inflammatory anti-abortion monument inside the Capitol. Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, the commission chairman, said afterward that the commissioners believed such a monument would be “inappropriate.” Proponents said the monument would help parents cope with grief caused by abortion, but its real intent was to cause grief for those who’ve chosen abortion, to intimidate those considering abortion, and to encourage the subjection of women by Big Government. Inappropriate at the least.

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