For every email in my inbox that expressed disappointment in Der Arnold for his boorish behavior toward women, I’ve received half a dozen that expressed outrage at the L.A. Times for holding its Arnold-is-a-groper story until yesterday morning, less than a week before the recall vote. The editors of the Times certainly have some explaining to do.
For what it’s worth, I myself doubt that the Times story was part of an orchestrated smear. To quote Daniel Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee (and you’ll find his invaluable website here):
The story is long, detailed and explosive. It was almost certainly edited at multiple levels and vetted by the Times’ attorneys. Knowing the kind of bureaucracy that can be at work at a major newspaper, I suspect that the piece only now has cleared all those hurdles. [And]…I think Schwarzenegger is helped as much as he is hurt by the timing. The campaign has prepared the world for the possibility of late charges of a personal nature….