And why is this topic getting so much play? Duh. Because it’s a conservative talking point! After all, Howell Raines has had bad judgment for years. But when he used his bad judgment to write editorials trashing Clinton for pseudo-scandals, did you see the corps—with its “liberal bias”—rise up to smite the great Timesman then? Weirdly, it’s only when Raines flogs a liberal cause that the press corps gets its knickers knotted.
Raines has always been an idiosyncratic crusader. In his tenure running the op-ed pages his targets were the Clintons and Wen-Ho Lee. Now his target is Augusta. Criticize it if you want, but it isn't evidence of Raines the Liberal, just Raines the self-important.