First Wonkette, then the world! Intern Fred Becker has posted this on the famous DC gossip blog (note the link):
While LA Times columnist Ron Brownstein is off gazing into his new wife's navel on their Paris honeymoon, his colleagues back in Washington seem to be rooting around in their own bellies over a ponderous ethical dilemma: Can the star political reporter cover John McCain when his wife is the top flack for the Arizona Senator and likely 2008 hopeful?
"We're all agreed that Ron can't cover McCain per se," the Times Washington bureau chief, Doyle McManus, told Howard Kurtz, but he sees no problem with Brownstein writing a story "if McCain's name comes into it in a minor way.
A minor way? A press-shy guy like McCain? Not likely to come up in many stories about the 2008 presidential campaign or stories about Congress, or lawmaking, or wars, or treatment of prisoners, or campaign finance, or the breathing of air in Washington DC. If McCain's name only comes up in a minor way, it won't be Brownstein but his wife who has problems. She'll be out of a job.
I hadn't seen the quote Becker was referring to, which ran in Howard Kurtz's column yesterday. Here it is:
Los Angeles Times reporter Ron Brownstein told readers last week that he didn't intend to treat John McCain any differently, despite the fact that Brownstein's wife, former CNN producer Eileen McMenamin, has become the Arizona senator's communications director. "I am confident that her new job will not affect my judgments," he wrote.
Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus says the couple is in Paris and "we decided not to stop the honeymoon to have the argument" about "where the right boundaries are" for Brownstein. "We're all agreed that Ron can't cover McCain per se," but McManus sees no problem with Brownstein writing a story "if McCain's name comes into it in a minor way. . . . We think Ron is the best political writer in the country and don't think it'd serve the nation or our readers to take him off politics."
So if Brownstein can't cover McCain, why did he write a column touting McCain's presidential chances without disclosing his engagement to McMenamin? Is that a "column" and not reporting under McManus's purview? I've emailed McManus to seek clarification; will post his reply as soon as I get it.
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