I have a feeling Kevin Drum might tease me again for writing this, but I can’t help myself. It’s just too annoying.
The New York Times’ Deborah Solomon chatted with notorious televangelist John Hagee this week for an interview that ran in today’s NYT Sunday magazine. Hagee, of course, is best known as a bigoted mega-church leader in Texas, whom John McCain embraced and campaigned with.
This exchange from the interview stood out for me.
Solomon: As a prominent evangelical pastor based in San Antonio, you were recently catapulted into national controversy when you endorsed Senator John McCain for president. Is it true that McCain actively sought your endorsement?
Hagee: It’s true that McCain’s campaign sought my endorsement.
Now, there’s some news value, I suppose, in Hagee’s acknowledgement, but that’s not the part that irks me.
Instead, it was the question. Solomon prefaced her question by noting that Hagee was “catapulted into national controversy.” I’m not necessarily blaming Solomon, but I don’t think that’s even remotely true. I wish Hagee had been “catapulted into national controversy,” but thanks to political reporters, including those at Solomon’s own paper, that didn’t happen.
Using Nexis and Google News, I went ahead and did another search this morning. How many of the nation’s largest daily newspapers ran stand-alone articles about McCain’s outreach to a bigoted and nutty televangelist?
Here’s the list:
Washington Post — Zero
New York Times — Zero
Los Angeles Times — Zero
Boston Globe — Zero
Chicago Tribune — Zero
USA Today — Zero
Wall Street Journal — Zero
Now, to be fair, in a couple of instances, some of these papers made brief reference to the flap in editorials or columns. More recently, a couple of the dailies ran huge stories about Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright, and made brief reference therein to “questions” about McCain’s Hagee association.
But despite condemnations from the Speaker of the House, the chairman of the DNC, Catholic groups on the left, Catholic groups on the right, and Jewish groups, none of the major dailies ran a single article about the Republican presidential nominee cozying up to a bigoted megachurch preacher or the outrage it caused in some circles.
As such, Hagee wasn’t “catapulted into national controversy.” He should have been, but political reporters collectively decided to give him a pass, for reasons that are still unclear.
I remain agog.