Because they’d run dumb one-source stories like this and wonder why we (you know, all those skeptical journalists) had no respect for them. What they did in this case was haul out the Rolodex and get Larry Sabato, the professional quotemeister on media matters, on the phone to see what he thought of how the L.A. Times handled the Arnie-groping story. He did as asked, and provided useful quotage criticizing the timing of the story’s publication … which, circumstances have proved, probably enhanced Arnold’s chances because, as Michael Wolff of New York magazine speculates, his handlers and media advisers obviously had a gameplan for the story’s release — to apologize profusely and blame the messenger.
Neatly done but it certainly raises a question in my mind: why, 50 years after the advent of television, do we keep on letting these media spinmeisters play us for fools?