WELL, YES: Reticence of Mainstream Media Becomes a Story Itself.

Meanwhile, the New York Times — where the above appears — showed no such reticence in running a front-page story on McCain — as the (London) Times noted: “The New York Times has not deigned to touch the story, although it recently ran thousands of words on a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, which appeared to be based more on innuendo than fact.” And the L.A. Times — where Tony Pierce cautioned in-house bloggers to avoid the Edwards story — had no problem publishing what Larry Lessig called “a baseless smear” against Judge Kozinski. And just this past week, the Washington Post ran a front-page story charging McCain with improper donations, but then had to publish a correction making clear that it was all wrong.

Readers will be forgiven for concluding that there are different standards for left and right. They will not be forgiven for concluding the opposite, since only an idiot would think that at this point . . . .