Interesting tale on the Drudge Report about an op-ed McCain submitted to the NYT in response to an Obama op-ed, and which the NYT declined to publish. (Thanks to reader Sandy McDonough for the reefer...) It's worth a read. Then put yourself in the editor's shoes. What decision would you have made as editor in the same circumstances? (Of course, I'll be interested if there are other aspects to this decision that we don't about yet, i.e. the NYT side of the story.) With that caveat - that we may not yet know the full story - I have to say that I don't think I'd have made the same decision. If one candidate has opined on a relevant topic and the other candidate seeks to do so, too - and the piece makes even mild sense - I'd feel obliged to publish it out of fairness and in the interest of educating readers. That said, it's often a difficult call. Deputy Editorial Page Editor Sharon Grigsby knows this first hand. Candidates don't always stick to the point, or follow guidelines. We've made a number of tough calls in this department along these lines in the past (not Obama/McCain per se, but in local races from time to time). Sharon reviews more than 300 manuscripts a day for the 3-4 spots on our daily op-ed pages and so we're forced to be very choosy in terms of topics, timeliness, relevancy, etc. In cases like this, we always try to keep the readers' interests in mind and to explain our thinking as clearly and transparently as possib ...
Anytime
