The problem here Major is that you are using this thing called logic. To people who are looking for a reason to dislike McCain (also called people in NY), they will react based on the allegation. In other words...it sells newspapers. It gets hits on their website. It makes money (which for newspapers has become increasingly difficult).
Except the title of the story isn't "McCain has Affair with Lobbyist" its "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk" The title isn't a sensational but states that McCain's self-confidence has put him in some questionable situations.
Those are good points if the article was focussed on the affair. The affair actually isn't that big of a part of the article. The article does lead off with it which is probably because that is the most salacious and in the end the NYT is about selling papers but most of the rest of it details things like McCain's use of corporate jets and how the Keating Five scandal changed his attitude.
McCain caught in at least one oopsie. Who knows the substance of this at this point, though. http://www.newsweek.com/id/114505 Just hours after the Times' story was posted, the McCain campaign issued a point-by-point response that depicted the letters as routine correspondence handled by his staff--and insisted that McCain had never even spoken with anybody from Paxson or Alcalde & Fay about the matter. "No representative of Paxson or Alcalde & Fay personally asked Senator McCain to send a letter to the FCC," the campaign said in a statement emailed to reporters. But that flat claim seems to be contradicted by an impeccable source: McCain himself. "I was contacted by Mr. Paxson on this issue," McCain said in the September 25, 2002 deposition obtained by Newsweek. "He wanted their approval very bad for purposes of his business. I believe that Mr. Paxson had a legitimate complaint."
"How the Keating Five changed his attitude." It slays me how McCain gets such a pass on the Keating Five Scandal. The guy isn't running for the Senate anymore. He's running for President of the freakin' United States of America. The Keating Five Scandal should be brought up and looked at with a microscope. Hell, it's a lot worse than many of the "issues" Democrats running for President have been subjected to scrutiny on by the press and the GOP attack machine in the past. McCain doesn't deserve a pass on his past record as Senator. Impeach Bush.
