Note to NYT: It takes three to make a trend

The Times today suggests there's been an unusual number of journalists going to work for the Obama administration, which (yawn) raises questions about liberal bias:

But this year the accusation has a new twist: In some notable cases it has become true, with several prominent journalists now on the payrolls of Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership.

Who are the prominent journalists? Well, the first example the Times references is MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who kinda, sorta thought about running for the U.S. senate from Pennsylvania. But is Matthews going to run? Apparently not. And even if he did run, and even if he won, would Matthews be “on the payrolls of Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership”? No.

So the first example the Times points to is pretty much irrelevant to the issue at hand: journalists joining the payrolls of Democrats.

The Times' third example [emphasis added]:

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the leading candidate for surgeon general, is CNN's chief medical correspondent. His résumé as a practicing neurosurgeon — and one of People magazine's “sexiest men alive” in 2003 — is not that of a traditional journalist. But he reported on the health records of the presidential candidates last year, along with their health care proposals.

Has Gupta joined the Obama administration? No. Has he been asked to? No.

In total, the Times points to four journalists to back up its claim that “an unusual number of journalists from prominent, mainstream organizations started new government jobs in January.” Of the four referenced, two--Matthews and Gupta--did not start new government jobs in January.