Surely Not - 'New York Times' Spiked Obama Donor Story?

Serious accusations were levelled against The New York Times at a recent hearing of the House Judiciary Committee according to a report in The Philadelphia Bulletin:

A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.”

Mmmm... Remember how the NYT salivated over Troopergate and then “forgot” to mention Governor Palin had been completely cleared?

Academicians and journalism experts expressed similar criticism of the Times. “The New York Times keeps going over the line in every single campaign and last year was the worst, easily,” said Mal Kline of the American Journalism Center. “They would ignore real questions worth examining about Obama, the questions about Bill Ayers or about how he got his house. Then on the other side they would try to manufacture scandals.”

Mr. Kline mentioned Gov. Sarah Palin was cleared by investigators of improperly firing an Alaska State Trooper, but went unnoticed by The Times. “How many stories about this were in The New York Times,” he asked.

“If this is true, it would not surprise me at all. The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. It is dedicated to furthering the Democratic Party,” said Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of Political Science at Grove City College. “People think The New York Times is an objective news source and it is not. It would not surprise me that if they had a news story that would have swayed the election into McCain’s favor they would not have used it.”

And how did the fearless NYT respond to the Bulletin’s requests for comments?

Stephanie Strom was contacted for a comment, and The New York Times’ Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Catherine Mathis replied with an e-mail in her place. Ms. Mathis wrote, “In response to your questions to our reporter, Stephanie Strom, we do not discuss our newsgathering and won’t comment except to say that political considerations played no role in our decisions about how to cover this story or any other story about President Obama.”

Oh, of course – nothing to see here, move along, please...

h/t instapundit

VO: Related - John Hawkins at Townhall has a column up of the seven techniques used by leftists to smear conservatives. I can match up all seven techniques in the media's campaign against Palin:

1. Question the motivations. (Palin's position on the stimulus is pure political pandering!)
2. The Anonymous Smear. (Palin didn't know Africa was a continent!)
3. The Teary Eyed Spokesman. (Nick Tucker of Emmonak.)
4. Rewriting History. (Alaska Democrats have never praised or worked with Palin!)
5. Everybody knows. (That Palin cost McCain votes during the election!)
6. The Ransom Note Method. (Palin thinks that city dwellers are not real Americans!)
7. The Straw Man. (Palin wants to impose her religious beliefs on everyone!)

Look over the list and I'm sure you think of plenty of other examples on your own.