"But McCain's denials didn't stop at sex, and the story didn't, either. The same day the Times ran its account, The Post ran a story that stayed away from the "romantic" angle but reported (as the Times also had) that McCain had written two letters to the Federal Communications Commission, urging that it vote on the sale of a Pittsburgh television station to Paxson Communications, one of Iseman's clients.
The Post wrote: "At the time he sent the first letter, McCain had flown on Paxson's corporate jet four times to appear at campaign events and had received $20,000 in campaign donations from Paxson and its law firm. The second letter came on Dec. 10, a day after the company's jet ferried him to a Florida fundraiser that was held aboard a yacht in West Palm Beach ."
Okay? Now--here's the thing. What nobody talks about is the fact that the FCC had sat on this apparently innocuous request--that it approve the sale of this Pittsburgh TV station--for over 2 YEARS. There was no good reason for such a long delay. In such a case, why NOT have someone push the FCC to get moving and do something, for goodness sake.
Of course we can't feel too sorry for McCain. He's the one who's been arguing that even the slightest "appearance of impropriety" is a bad thing, with his McCain-Feingold legislation. He brought this on himself. Yet the news media needs to give all the facts in reporting the story. And a relevant fact is the FCC's snails pace in this case of the Pittsburgh TV station.
