From iPod to TANG

The New York Times still won't give up. In a story concerning the tracks that President Bush has loaded onto his iPod, the NYT manages to wedge in a brief discussion (and denigration) of the President's time in the Texas Air National Guard. Of course, the story -- in unfailing fashion -- describes Bush's position as having been "coveted." Gratuitous? You be the judge:

As for an analysis of Mr. Bush's playlist, Mr. Levy of Rolling Stone started out with this: "One thing that's interesting is that the president likes artists who don't like him."

Mr. Levy was referring to Mr. Fogerty, who was part of the anti-Bush "Vote for Change" concert tour across the United States last fall. Mr. McKinnon, who once wrote songs for Kris Kristofferson's music publishing company, responded in an e-mail message that "if any president limited his music selection to pro-establishment musicians, it would be a pretty slim collection."

Nonetheless, Mr. McKinnon said that Mr. Bush had not gone so far as to include on his playlist "Fortunate Son," the angry anti-Vietnam war song about who has to go to war that Mr. Fogerty sang when he was with Creedence Clearwater Revival. ("I ain't no senator's son ... Some folks are born silver spoon in hand.") As the son of a two-term congressman and a United States Senate candidate, Mr. Bush won a coveted spot with the Texas Air National Guard to avoid combat in Vietnam.

And the NYT wonders why people are cancelling their subscriptions. When a breezy story about iPod One devolves in snide insinuation, the so-called Paper of Record underscores its own irrelevance.