MCCAIN said while Chelsea Clinton was in her tumultuous teenage years as her parents were under the media glare caused by the impeachment scandal:
McCain: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
The Los Angeles Times, in its Life & Style section, provided an oblique rendering of the joke that did not fully convey its ugliness. When Maureen Dowd penned a column in the New York Times about the joke, she wrote that McCain "is so revered by the press that his disgusting jape was largely nudged under the rug." But Dowd chose not to relay the joke, either.
The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.
The former Vietnam POW should escaped this matter without any political harm. In the inevitable magazine profiles of McCain that will be written, there will no doubt be the perfunctory line: "McCain's tendency to speak too freely was proven when he made a distasteful joke at a fund-raiser about the first family and then had to apologize to the president."
But the joke revealed more than a mean streak in a man who would be president. It also exposed how the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times play favorites when reporting the foibles of our leading politicians.
McCain's lapse in judgment may be a significant clue into aspects of his "character," and thus relevant to the voting public. But many voters have been spared this insight, thanks to the censors in the press.