NY Times uncritically reported Palin's attacks about Obama's troop-funding vote and his "air-raiding" statement

Summary: The New York Times uncritically quoted Gov. Sarah Palin saying of Sen. Barack Obama: "Our opponent voted to cut off funding for our troops. ... And he said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians.' " The article did not note that Sen. John McCain himself voted against a bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and that Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently apologized for civilian deaths resulting from coalition air strikes in Afghanistan.

In an October 8 New York Times article, reporter Julie Bosman uncritically quoted Gov. Sarah Palin saying of Sen. Barack Obama: "Our opponent voted to cut off funding for our troops. ... And he said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians.' I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women are doing in Afghanistan.' " But Bosman did not point out that Sen. John McCain himself voted against legislation to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as Obama noted during the first presidential debate on September 26. Additionally, Bosman did not note that Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently apologized for civilian deaths resulting from coalition air strikes in Afghanistan.

During the September 26 debate, McCain stated that Obama "did the incredible thing of voting to cut off the funds for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." Obama responded: "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. We didn't have a difference on whether or not we were going to be funding troops."

Bosman did not note that McCain voted against 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.

Moreover, Bosman uncritically reported Palin's claim that Obama said "that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians.' " Bosman did not point out that Obama actually said on August 13, 2007, that "[w]e've got to get the job done there [in Afghanistan] and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." Bosman also did not note that Gates said in a September 17 statement: "I offer all Afghans my sincere condolences and personal regrets for the recent loss of innocent life as a result of coalition airstrikes. While no military has ever done more to prevent civilian casualties, it is clear that we have to work even harder. I have asked for a detailed briefing this afternoon about our close air support as well as our intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations."

Indeed, U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan and accounts of resulting civilian casualties have been widely reported in the media and have reportedly provoked criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a British commander stationed there. Additionally, the Associated Press reported in a "Fact Check" the day after Obama's remark: "Western forces have been killing [Afghan] civilians at a faster rate than the insurgents."

From Bosman's October 8 New York Times article:

Standing before a sea of red T-shirts and homemade signs reading "No Communists!" and "Palin's Pitbulls," Ms. Palin on Tuesday nestled in to her Republican base.

"Our opponent voted to cut off funding for our troops," Ms. Palin said, as she was interrupted by a deep-throated chorus of boos. "He did this even after saying that he wouldn't do such a thing. And he said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, 'air-raiding villages and killing civilians.' I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women are doing in Afghanistan."

"Treason!" one man in the crowd shouted angrily.

On a two-day, five-rally campaign swing through Florida, Ms. Palin was met by an enthusiastic response from audiences who devoured every word of her anti-Democratic pitch.

—L.K.A.