The news media shot blanks this week after a couple of outlets published stories on Republican presidential candidates that could have severely damaged or ended their campaigns, but instead led to even more media criticism.
Ben Carson, tied with Donald Trump as the national front-runner and No. 2 in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, and Marco Rubio, trailing in third place and on the rise, were targets of new stories that dug into their pasts and questioned the candidates’ integrity. In both cases, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee claimed bias on behalf of the “mainstream media.”
“The mainstream media is dead set on helping the Democrats coronate Hillary Clinton,” the spokesman said, “and selectively covering manufactured Republican controversies while conveniently ignoring stories on the Democrat candidates’ protests over debates, new details on [Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s] secret email scandal, and the Democratic National Committee becoming financially insolvent. The double standard is astonishing.”
On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Times rehashed a years-worn controversy dealing with Rubio’s tenure in Florida politics as speaker of the House. The story centered on a charge card he was given by the state Republican Party to use on official business, though he had used it for personal things as well (he said he was given permission) and reimbursed the party for those expenses.
The New York Times on Wednesday wrote its own story on the matter under the headline “Marco Rubio Confronts New Scrutiny Over Use of Party Credit Card.” That story said there is still a period of time between 2005 and 2006 for which Rubio has not released charge card statements.
But his campaign has said it would release them soon, and to top it off, the Washington Post “fact checker” column on Friday essentially vindicated Rubio.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on this issue,” the column said, “but based on the information released so far, a mountain’s been made out of molehill, by the media and Rubio’s opponents.”
A similar story played out on Friday when the Virginia-based publication Politico published a report alleging Ben Carson “fabricated” a story he often tells about receiving a “full scholarship” to West Point.
The Politico story said Carson “admitted that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.”
The story referred to part of Carson’s autobiography “Gifted Hands,” wherein he says he was told he would get a full ride at West Point but that he decided not to pursue an education at Yale instead.
After the story gained steam on TV news outlets and online, the Carson campaign rebutted it, saying that Carson had never said he applied to West Point, but that he had been extended an informal offer.
In Carson’s book, he does say he was “offered a full scholarship to West Point” but that “I let them know that a military career wasn’t where I saw myself going.” But he does not say he applied to the school.
Other news outlets, including the Washington Post, also published their own stories disputing Politico’s report that Carson had “fabricated” anything.
A New York-based politics reporter, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about his peers, said he didn’t necessarily think the Carson and Rubio stories were similar in their fallout, but that there did seem to be evidence that they weren’t carefully crafted.
“In general, when dealing with blockbuster stories, reporters and editors need to look at every word in their stories for accuracy and potential overreach,” the reporter said. “And it’s clear that doesn’t always happen in campaign reporting.”
