Television comedian Stephen Colbert raised the most astute (and amusing) critique to date of the New York Times' failed investigation of presidential candidate John McCain for suspected canoodling with a lobbyist: If you are going to smear someone, McCain or whoever, at least do so properly, effectively and to devastating effect. Don't be all wishy-washy like the Times, whose boring headline on the McCain investigation read, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk." The word "sex" never appeared once in the article, even thought it was basically about sex; the dirtiest the Times ever got was the word "romantic." The Times is clearly outmatched in its newfound spurious scandalmongering hobby by right wing media, which have perfected the art of escalating mere rumors into mainstream news stories, from Hillary Clinton murdering Vince Foster to Barack Obama being a Muslim extremist. Here is the best chunk of Colbert's bit:

Via Crooks and Liars, which has the full five-minute segment.

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