Every Time I Think the New York Times Reaches the Bottom...

Reading the New York Times lately has become a very depressing experience.  The paper has always had a left-leaning editorial slant, but the reporting was generally high quality and substantive.  I don't really mind papers having a bias.  It's honest to admit that you believe certain things and that you are reporting through that prism.  It helps the reader evaluate what you are reporting.

But when did the New York Times suddenly decide that a few people "questioning" something is the basis for a hard news item?  First it was the ludicrous article about McCain and the "questions" about his "affair" (we don't know, we have no evidence, but we're just sayin'...), brilliantly taken down by Michael Kinsley in this piece on Slate.

Now it's this piece of nonsense from the Times about "questions" over whether McCain, who was born on a U.S. military installation in the Panama Canal Zone, is a "natural born" U.S. citizen for the purposes of the Constitutional requirements of the Presidency.  Who is doing the questioning?  The paper quotes an associate professor at Catholic University's law school and, uh, nobody else.  It then goes on to quote numerous sources who make it clear that this isn't even close to being an issue.

Here's a more informed story on the issue, one that references, you know, actual laws and stuff.

What the heck is going on at the Times these days?  It's like they've lost their minds completely. 

Crikey.