The ‘she said/they said’ between the NYT and Vicki Iseman continues! Politico’s Michael Calderone spoke to Iseman today who says Dean Baquet’s statement that the Times did not apologize is absolutely untrue.

“They are absolutely not telling the truth when they say there is no apology,” Iseman said, later adding, “They are striking first blood against me.”

Iseman is unable to divulge further details due to a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement, which she has since asked to be released from. Meanwhile Baquet says: “I knew some people would see [the settlement] as the paper retreating from the story, I wanted to make that clear to my staff that it wasn’t.”

There also seems to be some debate over the historical importance of the “Note to Readers.”

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So, in an interesting twist to the Times settling the lawsuit with lobbyist Vicki Iseman the paper agreed to print a lengthy statement from Iseman’s lawyers, as well as issuing a joint statement, their own response, and a note to readers. Phew. First the lawyers:

This case is now ended, on the basis of an agreed settlement that includes a Note to Readers, a Joint Statement, the publication of this Commentary, as well as the accompanying response on behalf of The New York Times. As the two lawyers who represented Ms. Iseman in this matter, we offer these thoughts in the spirit of prompting meaningful debate concerning the vital importance of drawing the proper balance between the need for free and open public disclosure and the privacy rights of individuals.

Afterwards the Times issued this response (as a side note perhaps an easier way to deal with all this back and forthing would have been to launch a Tumblr!):

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Finally! A piece of good news for the folks at The New York Times. Seems that lobbyist, and friend of John McCain, Vicki Iseman has dropped her defamation lawsuit against the Times (perhaps she took a look at the company’s current stock prices and concluded it wasn’t worth the effort). Over at Politico Michael Calderone got his hands on the memo Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet sent out to staff:

To the staff,

Vicki Iseman has dropped her lawsuit against The Times, just weeks after it was filed. We paid no money. We did not apologize. We did not retract one word of the story, which was a compelling chapter in the tale of Senator John McCain and his political rise.

The story stands as a powerful examination of a presidential candidate who cast himself as an ethics reformer and scourge of special interests, yet seemed blind at times over the course of his career to appearances of conflicts of interest.

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This has not been the best year ever for The New York Times. They’ve had to (finally) slash dividends, mortgage their pretty new building, and are currently attempting to sell their stake in the Boston Red Sox. Now, to cap it all off they are being sued! Remember that big 5000 word piece they did back in February on John McCain and lobbyists which insinuated that John McCain had had an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman — a story which, incidentally, made more than one media blunder list in the last few weeks — well Iseman has just filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against the paper for giving a false impression about her and McCain’s relationship.

That The New York Times would make such aggressive and sensational allegations and insinuations in the face of on-the-record denials by Ms. Iseman and Senator McCain only reinforced the message to readers that The New York Times in fact believed that Ms. Iseman and Senator McCain had indeed engaged in an ‘inappropriate relationship,’ a relationship that was romantic, unethical, and a conflict of interest…Otherwise, reasonable readers would conclude, The New York Times would never have printed the story at all.

The Times has issued a statement saying that they “fully stand behind the article.”

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