Woman Who New York Times Claimed McCain Had An Affair With Is Suing
It’s about time. I was never a McCain supporter this election season, but he was hardly deserving of that kind of a hatchet job.
Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman has filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond on Tuesday, alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress…
The 36-page complaint charges that the story implies an “unprofessional relationship” between Iseman and McCain.
Both Iseman and McCain denied any improper relationship. However, the public viewed the story as being about an affair, according to the suit, which cites the post-publication remarks of 10 different commentators across the political spectrum. In each case, their comments about the story assumed it was about an alleged affair, the lawyers noted.
The Times’ own public editor, Clark Hoyt, published what Allen called a “blistering attack” on the Times’ decision to publish the original Iseman article.
My original post on the hit piece is here.
If Iseman wins her suit (it’s a tough case to win, but who knows), it’ll hit the Times right where it hurts: the pocketbook.
With the paper teetering on the edge of insolvency, they can hardly afford to settle a lawsuit like this.
