In an exercise in self-loathing, I am an admitted reader of Mark Halperin's "The Page." I'm not proud of it, but I will cop to it.
For most of my internet surfing, I use Bloglines, the RSS reader. When I come across something I like I click to go directly to the website to read the full story.
I was very surprised then to see that the following story had been posted to "The Page"'s RSS feed, but when I clicked through, the story had been removed completely from The Page's website.
Not too surprisingly, the story was critical of John McCain.
The story after the fold...
Here was the RSS entry, regarding John McCain and his scurrilous and puerile attacks on Barack Obama and his oil-saving tips:
The Page:
OOOPS — He Did It Again
by mevanh
McCain displays his normal "discipline" at a Tuesday tele-town meeting, undermining days of (questionable, desperate, and — apparently — effective) attacks by his campaign and the whole Republican Party on Obama’s call for tire inflation to save fuel.
McCain: "And could I mention that Senator Obama a couple of days ago said that we ought to all inflate our tires, and I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it."
When I clicked the headline of the story, I got sent to this page.
As you can see--there is nothing there. The story has been scrubbed clean.
When I went to The Page directly, I didn't see the story at all. Not a trace.
Now I know that there are frequent updates on the site. But according to the RSS feed, this story had been published only 1 hour and 39 minutes earlier.
So what's the explanation?
I'm willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt--maybe there is a good explanation.
But I can't see it from where I'm standing. Can you?
We all know that Mark Halperin's lameness has been noted many, many, many, many, many times, and his and the rest of the traditional media's sick devotion to John McCain is well documented.
But posting and then killing a story detrimental to John McCain is really, really lame.
UPDATE:
As noted in the comments, the original story has now been picked up by Reuters
Money quote:
Republican John McCain appeared to back down on Tuesday in his dispute with his opponent Barack Obama over tire pressure.
...
"Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it," McCain said.