Greetings. A story is blowing around cable news right now making a big deal out of the New York Times refusing to publish (without changes) John McCain's proposed op-ed rebuttal to Barack Obama's recent op-ed there. Yapping mouths are seeing a conspiracy trying to shut out McCain.

I just wanted to note, as someone who has had an op-ed in the Times, that the requirement for back and forth editorial cooperation and editing of proposed New York Times op-eds -- even invited ones as in my case -- is utterly standard and expected. It appears that McCain is being treated just like everyone else in the same position -- no better and no worse. I'll bet that anyone reading this blog item who has been through the NYT op-ed process has had much the same experience as I have.

Op-eds are not free press release distribution points. If the McCain campaign has problems with particular aspects of the op-ed guidelines in this case, my suggestion would be to negotiate with the op-ed editor that they're currently publicly blasting (whom I've communicated with in the past and found to be entirely reasonable) rather than trying to accuse the Times of bad faith.

--Lauren--