Media again quote debate attack that Obama "voted against funding the troops" while omitting Dem response

Summary: The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both reported Gov. Sarah Palin's attack during the vice-presidential debate that Sen. "Barack Obama voted against funding troops" without noting, as Sen. Joe Biden pointed out in response, that "[Sen.] John McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the troops because of an amendment he voted against had a timeline in it to draw down American troops."

In their October 3 editions, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both reported Gov. Sarah Palin's attack during the vice-presidential debate that Sen. "Barack Obama voted against funding troops" without noting, as Sen. Joe Biden pointed out in response, that "[Sen.] John McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the troops because of an amendment he voted against had a timeline in it to draw down American troops. And John said I'm not going to fund the troops if in fact there's a time line." As Media Matters for America has noted, the Los Angeles Times -- as well as Reuters, the Associated Press, and the Politico -- also quoted a similar attack by Sen. John McCain in the first presidential debate without noting that Obama -- like Biden in the vice-presidential debate -- pointed out that "Senator McCain opposed funding for troops in legislation that had a timetable, because he didn't believe in a timetable. I opposed funding a mission that had no timetable, and was open-ended, giving a blank check to George Bush. We had a difference on the timetable."

In the New York Times article, reporter Patrick Healy noted that Palin "attacked Mr. Obama's Senate vote against federal financing for troops in Iraq, which Mr. Biden also once criticized." In the Los Angeles Times "news analysis," staff writer Peter Wallsten reported that "on Iraq, [Palin] hewed to years-old attack lines of painting war critics as quitters and accusing Obama of trying to deprive the troops of funding." Neither article noted Biden's response nor did they note that McCain voted against the Senate version of a March 2007 bill that would have funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and would have provided more than $1 billion in additional funds to the Department of Veterans Affairs -- along with all but two of his fellow Republican senators.

From the October 3 New York Times article:

In response to a question about her views on an exit strategy in Iraq, Ms. Palin championed Mr. McCain's support for the "surge" of American troops there; hailed "a great American hero," Gen. David H. Petraeus; and attacked Mr. Obama's Senate vote against federal financing for troops in Iraq, which Mr. Biden also once criticized.

After that, Mr. Biden turned to the moderator and said, "Gwen [Ifill], with all due respect, I didn't hear a plan."

From the October 3 Los Angeles Times article:

Potentially erasing memories of her widely mocked efforts to claim foreign policy expertise based on Alaska's proximity to Russia, Palin talked about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. She repeatedly mentioned the president of Iran by name, and even talked about having a conversation with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

But she spoke of foreign policy in the broadest of strokes, adopting rhetoric about spreading freedom around the world that is the core of the so-called Bush Doctrine that, in one of her network interviews, she did not seem to understand. And on Iraq, she hewed to years-old attack lines of painting war critics as quitters and accusing Obama of trying to deprive the troops of funding.

"We're getting closer and closer to victory," she said, "and it would be a travesty if we quit now in Iraq."

Biden, in one of his strongest points in the debate, shot back that the Republicans were offering no plan to end the Iraq war.

"This is a fundamental difference between us. We will end this war," Biden said. "For John McCain, there is no end in sight to end this war."

—C.S.