The New York Times, in a November 19 article by staff writer Marc Santora, and McClatchy Newspapers, in a November 18 article, uncritically reported Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) assertion, “You can be tough, but you should never degrade or ridicule anyone who is seeking public office.” McCain made his comments during the question-and-answer portion of his November 18 appearance at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, where he asserted that he was “the conservative Republican with the best chance of defeating” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) if they faced each other in the general election, adding that if they were their party's nominees, he “intend[s] this to be a respectful debate.” Neither the Times nor McClatchy noted that McCain has previously mocked Clinton, as well as Sen. Barack Obama (IL).

As Media Matters for America documented, responding in part to McCain's May 25 criticism of his May 24 vote for an Iraq war emergency supplemental bill that included a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, Obama issued a press release the same day saying that “the course we are on in Iraq” is not “working.” Obama said “a reflection of that [is] the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket” and other military protection when walking through a Baghdad market during a trip to Iraq in April. In a response the same day, McCain said: “By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket.” Further, in a May 25 blog post on Politico.com, Politico senior political reporter Jonathan Martin reported this response from a “McCain aide”: “Obama wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong.” But, as MSNBC congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira noted in his report on McCain's response to Obama, Webster's New World Dictionary includes “flack” as an alternative to “flak.” Indeed, as Media Matters documented, the spelling of “flack jacket” with a “c” is also present on numerous military websites.

Further, as Media Matters documented, on November 12, when a questioner at a campaign event in Hilton Head, South Carolina, asked McCain, “How do we beat the bitch?” -- presumably referring to Clinton -- McCain said it was an “excellent question.” During another recent campaign appearance in South Carolina, he named a nursing school training dummy “Hillary.”

Similarly, in a November 18 Associated Press article, Philip Elliott reported that McCain “in recent days has urged a respectful debate with Clinton -- who he expects the Democratic party to nominate -- and challenged his rivals to stop taking cheap shots at the New York senator,” without noting “cheap shots” McCain has taken at Clinton and Obama.

As Media Matters documented, Santora has previously reported that “McCain has studiously avoided personally attacking Mrs. Clinton,” without noting McCain's personal jabs at Clinton. Additionally, Media Matters noted that, in a November 17 AP article, Elliott similarly reported that “McCain on Saturday said he won't follow his rivals' lead in taking personal shots at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that voters seeking a candidate who will do that should look elsewhere,” without noting McCain's “personal shots” at Clinton.