McCain and the Star

by David Safier

The NY Times has an article this morning on McCain's current position in the Senate, filling a leadership vacuum by putting himself in the spotlight. It's a fairly nuanced piece, showing McCain's personal and political strengths and weaknesses. And the headline does a pretty good job of expressing the article's tone:

McCain, Distanced From Race, Raises Senate Voice

The Star ran the same article this morning. Wanna bet the paper put on its McCain cheerleading skirt in the headline? Yep, you're right.

Energized McCain retakes outspoken role in Senate

Energized! Retakes! Outspoken! What a guy. My only question is, how could they leave out "Maverick"?

UPDATE FROM A PREVIOUS POST: I took the Star to task for ignoring the possible legal problems with some robocalls McCain made about health care. Well, Rhonda Bodfield gave the story a little ink in Sunday's Political notebook, even including a bit of snark about the assertion by McCain's office that that no rules or laws were broken. So the Star has chimed in, I'm pleased to say.

Prediction: If McCain is cleared of ethical violations, the Star will run a story elevating him to sainthood for his unimpeachable behavior.

AND ANOTHER THING: This is on another topic, though still about the Star. It ran a story, Museum of Tolerance, from the East Valley Trib this morning. So why, if the Star can run Trib stories, did it ignore all the paper's excellent reporting on the tuition tax credit/STO controversy? This seems to take away any excuse the paper might have that it ignored the issue because it doesn't have the staff to cover Phoenix-based stories.