Senator John McCain's Reform Institute has suffered some bad press recently due to its involvement in an influence—peddling scandal with Cablevision. As usual, however, mainstream media have failed to go to the root of the matter.

Although AP put out a full and detailed story on this matter, which the NY Sun published in full right on its front page, I could find no other major newspaper which covered it at all initially. The Times buried the details on page 18, where they mixed it so thoroughly into other non—related issues that it appeared a minor matter —— and they avoided altogether mentioning the six—figure donations involved.

The Times did, much later, post the AP story on its Web site, dated some four hours after the printed Sun arrived at my doorstep; and the Times never covered it in print. The Boston Globe, likewise, carried a Web report.

A Google search, as well as a visit to a few major newspaper sites, including the LA Times and the Washington Post, indicated no print or Web coverage.

Unless I am mistaken that the large donations accepted by McCain's organization while he himself was securing direct favors for Chuck Dolan and other donors —— especially in light of the Arizona Senator's vigorous fight against campaign money influence —— should have been big news.

Can somebody explain to me just how the MSM conspired to keep this big story out of their pages? And why wasn't the hapless NY Sun clued in to keep silent?

Dick Weltz  3 11 05