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BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Story

By Jeralyn, Section Elections
Posted on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 11:05:21 PM EST
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Via Buzzflash: Reporter Dave Lindorff, writing in FAIR, says that the New York Times killed a story in the days before the election that could have changed the outcome of the election. The issue: Did President Bush cheat during the debate by wearing an electronic cueing device.

Could the last-minute decision by the New York Times not to run the Nelson photos story, or the decision by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times not even to pursue it, have affected the outcome of the recent presidential race? There is no question that if such a story had run in any one of those major venues, instead of just in two online publications, Bulgegate would have been a major issue in the waning days of the campaign.

Given that exit polls show many who voted for Bush around the country listed "moral values" as a big factor in their decision, it seems reasonable to assume that at least some would have changed their minds had evidence been presented in the nation’s biggest and most influential newspapers that Bush had been dishonest. "Cheating on a debate should affect an election," says Bagdikian. "The decision not to let people know this story could affect the history of the United States."

New York Times public editor Daniel Okrant confirms Lindhorff's allegations about the Times killing the story:

As Extra! went to press, New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent posted a message on his website (12/21/04) confirming that his paper had, in fact, killed a story about the device under George W. Bush’s suit. Here is the text of Okrent’s message:

President Bush and the Jacket Bulge

Online discussion of the famous bulge on President Bush’s back at the first presidential debate hasn’t stopped. One reporter (Dave Lindorff of Salon.com) asserted that the Times had a story in the works about a NASA scientist who had done a careful study of the graphic evidence, but it was spiked by the paper’s top editors sometime during the week before the election. Many readers have asked me for an explanation.

I checked into Lindorff’s assertion, and he’s right. The story’s life at the Times began with a tip from the NASA scientist, Robert Nelson, to reporter Bill Broad. Soon his colleagues on the science desk, John Schwartz and Andrew Revkin, took on the bulk of the reporting. Science editor Laura Chang presented the story at the daily news meeting but, like many other stories, it did not make the cut. According to executive editor Bill Keller, "In the end, nobody, including the scientist who brought it up, could take the story beyond speculation. In the crush of election-finale stories, it died a quiet, unlamented death."

Lindorff also is critical of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times for not pursuing the story.

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    • BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Story | 23 comments (23 topical)
    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#1)
    by chupetin on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 10:11:56 PM EST
    After all the other crap Bush got away with, cheating in a debate that he lost anyway is nothing in comparison. But if it's true it should go on public record. As far as moral values lets talk about pedophile priests and the churches that shelter them.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 01:47:09 AM EST
    Seems strange that those monitoring the debate didn't come out with what it was, though I recall reading somewhere that it was a medical device monitoring his heart or? He didn't want to appear in ill health before the election....who knows?

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#3)
    by bad Jim on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 03:08:34 AM EST
    Need any lumber? At least he didn't forget Poland.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 04:45:16 AM EST
    Lindorff also is critical of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times for not pursuing the story. Damn that liberal media!

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 07:41:45 AM EST
    The bulge it must be where he is keeping the voter turnout stats for Iraq

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 07:42:53 AM EST
    Remember the stolen Carter briefing papers that Reagan used to wipe the floor with Carter? I think George Will was involved in that somehow, wasn't he? The repubs have a history of looking for an edge without any regard to the ethics involved. They are, after all, the party of values.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 07:45:41 AM EST
    But this is water under the bridge. The real unraveling of the republic is taking place at Gitmo, Bagdad, and elsewhere. The question in my mind is whether the electorate at large is going to be able to read the writing on the wall by the midterm elections. We can count on Fox and it's msm friends to report there is no wall or handwriting. At some point, it may become apparent that the emperor has no clothes even if the sychophants keep oohing and aahing.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 07:51:23 AM EST
    Sadly, it probably wouldn't have made any difference, even if Bush himself admitted cheating (which of course wouldn't ever happen unless Gonzales started cutting off his fingers). Bush supporters are in total denial of reality, which is the most frightening phenomenon in modern American history.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 08:43:23 AM EST
    You have to live the Times' excuse: OK, we spiked it, but many stories never make it to the paper! Sure. President Bush using secret radio to help him in the debate -- and even with the help he lost horribly -- that's one. Oh, and there was one about the nice fireman getting that little girl's kitten down from the tree. No, wait, we ran that one.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 08:43:59 AM EST
    Live, love. Same thing.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 09:49:44 AM EST
    They didn't run the story because there was no story to run. It was all conjecture, conspiracy theory, and wishful thinking. Not one bit of proof. If I recall, there were the Bush debate notes from 2000 that ended up in Gore's hands. Both parties are dirty!

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 10:23:50 AM EST
    Republican motto: All I want in life is an unfair advantage.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 10:28:21 AM EST
    "If I recall," You don't. "there were the Bush debate notes from 2000 that ended up in Gore's hands." They didn't. "Both parties are dirty!" So the best the Rapethepublicans can do is say "we're no worse than" a straw man? Great. I see why the 51% supposedly voted the way they supposedly did.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 10:31:27 AM EST
    Its about control and what will happen next?

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 11:08:58 AM EST
    How about bocajeff - any links to your recall on Gore having Dubya's notes? Were they typed or crayon? Mission accomplised. It's hard work putting food on your family. Why would this guy need to cheat? Any chance he could have come across as a bigger loser without an earpiece?

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#16)
    by kdog on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 11:23:34 AM EST
    We need to face facts, if the electorate could re-elect Bush after that disaster of a first term, the Times could have run a story about Bush stealing old ladies purses and he still would have won. 51% are wilfully blind to reality. I'm not saying Republicans & Conservative ideology are inherently wrong, just that Bush is an incompetent leader that did not deserve to be re-elected. I personally believe we are best served by a combination of ideologies.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#17)
    by roy on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 11:30:13 AM EST
    A: After the election, the White House revealed that Bush was wearing a bullet proof vest. Maybe they were lying, but considering how small a radio can be, isn't a vest more believable? B: For a paper to run a story that could effect an election, shouldn't the standards be somewhat greater than speculation? C: While there was speculation that Bush had a radio, there was also speculation that he had a badly pressed suit, a bullet proof vest, or a wind-up key.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 11:42:54 AM EST
    Go to the FAIR page and just look at the pictures without reading any of the text. What conclusion do you think they're trying to get you to draw? Based on those two pictures, they want you to draw the conclusion that the right picture is what's under the jacket in the left picture. Now, they explain it away in the caption, but that's the impression they want you to get. This is the same trick used by, for instance, the National Enquirer. "Fairness and Accuracy" indeed.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 01:33:42 PM EST
    The idea that the mainstream media would have sat on a story like that if they had any evidence at all is beyond laughable. This is not to say it did not happen, just to deny a coverup. There is no way in hell the NYT, WAPO, or Time would have squelched this story if they had evidence to back them up. It would have been front page for a week.

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 03:36:52 PM EST
    Didn't it come out definitively after the election that it was a kevlar vest?

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#21)
    by Justina on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 05:02:51 PM EST
    If the New York Times didn't run the article about the NASA scientist's conclusion that Bush was wearing a receiver/transmitter because it was mere "speculation", why didn't the Times reporters directly confront the President then, requesting a demonstration of what he was wearing and why? Why hasn't any other newspaper done that? Why doesn't someone do it right now?

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 07:03:42 PM EST
    justina, Because this story has no legs. It's just yet another conspiracy theory promulgated by the lunatic fringe while waiting for their frappucino at Starbucks. There is no reason at all to believe that the New York Times would have sat on this if they thought they could float it, let alone prove it. And besides, in this country, the accuser has to prove the accused guilty. The accused does not have to prove they are innocent (unless the charge is DUI or tax evasion, in which case an entirely different standard of justice is used).

    Re: BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Sto (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 06, 2005 at 03:40:05 PM EST
    justpaul - Yes, but what you don't understand is that the NYT and LAT are secretly owned by the EVIL Rove, and the whole thing is a set up. I know this to be true because OBL channeled and told me.

    BulgeGate is Back: Did the Papers Kill the Story | 23 comments (23 topical)