In yet another instance of mangling the facts to show purported media favoritism toward then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, Bernard Goldberg writes in his new book: “Finally, in the last month of the campaign, the [New York] Times returned to the Obama-Ayers story, but only after McCain and (mostly) Palin began making it an issue on the campaign trail.” In fact, in what ABC News' Imtiyaz Delawala reported was the “first time” Gov. Sarah Palin raised Obama's connection to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, Palin actually cited the October 4, 2008, New York Times story to which Goldberg refers. Indeed, a Media Matters for America search* of the Nexis database found no reports of Palin mentioning Obama's connection to Ayers prior to the publication of the October 4 Times article.

In an October 4 entry on ABCNews.com's Political Radar blog, Delawala reported:

Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin unleashed a new attack on Sen. Barack Obama, accusing him of “palling around with terrorists” for his association with former 1960s radical William Ayers. The Obama campaign immediately denounced the attack as “shameless” and “offensive.”

At a private fundraiser in Englewood, Colo., this morning, and later at a rally in Carson, Calif., this afternoon, Palin for the first time raised Obama's connection to Ayers, one of the founding members of the Weather Underground, a '60s radical group that took credit for bombing attacks around the country, including explosions set off at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

“Our opponent, though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,” Palin told supporters at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser in Englewood. “Americans need to know this.”

Palin cited a front-page article in today's New York Times that explored the ties between Obama and Ayers. Obama had served on a charity board with Ayers in Chicago during the mid-90s, and Ayers was present at an organizing meeting in 1995 to kick off Obama's first election campaign for the Illinois State Senate.

“There has been a lot of interest in what I read, and what I read lately well, was reading my copy of today's New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago,” Palin said. “OK, now I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in the New York Times, so we're gonna talk about it.

”And it turns out one of Barack's earliest supporters is a man who according to the New York Times, and are they ever wrong, according to the New York Times was a domestic terrorist and part of a group of that, quote, pushed a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol," Palin continued. “Wow. These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes. This is not a man who sees America as I see America, OK?”

From Page 101 of Goldberg's A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media (Regnery), which Media Matters obtained in advance of its January 26 publication date:

Finally, in the last month of the campaign, the Times returned to the Obama-Ayers story, but only after McCain and (mostly) Palin began making it an issue on the campaign trail. And what did the Times investigation uncover? That Obama and Ayers did not have a “close” relationship and that their paths merely “crossed” while they worked in Chicago.

*Nexis searches in News, All (English, Full Text) from all dates before October 6, 2008, for

• Palin w/25 Ayers
• Palin w/25 terrorist
• Palin w/100 bomb!