In a July 21 article, New York Times reporter David D. Kirkpatrick wrote that Sen. John McCain “joined the Democrats and the White House to battle his own party” on immigration reform. But Kirkpatrick did not note that McCain's current position that the borders must be secured “first” constitutes a reversal from his previous position that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. Furthermore, Kirkpatrick did not note, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, that McCain said during a January 30 Republican presidential debate that he would not support the immigration reform bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) if it came to a vote on the Senate floor.

Similarly, in a February 8 Times article, Kirkpatrick and reporter Elisabeth Bumiller wrote that McCain had “not changed his basic position” on immigration. But in a March 3 Times article, Bumiller did report that McCain had “moved from his original position on immigration” and stated that “the fine print of his record in the Senate indicates that he has been a lot less consistent on some of his signature issues than he has presented himself to be so far in his presidential campaign.”

From Kirkpatrick's July 21 New York Times article:

To partisans on either side, Mr. McCain's path could be puzzling, even infuriating. On the defining issue of the Iraq war, he hammered both sides: the White House for its execution of the conflict and the Democrats for their opposition. On immigration, he joined the Democrats and the White House to battle his own party. And to the Republican leaders, he was a serial turncoat on other domestic matters, marching at the head of a Democratic column into fights over tax cuts, campaign finance restrictions, Alaskan oil drilling, access to generic drugs, gun-show sales, pollution caps, the 9/11 commission and the use of torture.