so much journalism is fleeting. Here today, I relevant tomorrow. Then there are

some stories that remain relevant for years, even decades. That's what brings me

to this headline in the New York Times this week. Former top McCain aides as he

lied to discredit a Times article. The article was from 2008, 14 years ago.

And the former top McCain aides was Steve Schmidt. He says he is now telling the

truth. He says he's unburdening himself. So what's going on? Are his recent

tweets unhinged? Does he have something bigger to say about the state of the

media? Well, those are a few of the questions for this week's reliable

sources podcast. So let's cue the music. I'm Brian Stelter and this weekly

podcast is our chance to go more in depth. Talking with media leaders and

newsmakers about how the news gets made. And that's why I was so intrigued by

Steve Schmidt's confession earlier in the week. That's what led the Times to

say he came out an omitted lie to discredit a Times article. Here's the lead

from Times reporter Jeremy Peters dated May 9th. The senior strategist for

Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign said he lied to discredit

a Times article that reported on McCain's close relationship with a female

lobbyist, a claim that the candidate and the campaign attacked at considerable

length at the time. If you remember the 2008 election, then you remember this

article. It came out in February of 2008. It was a product of many Times

reporters working on this for weeks. It said that people involved with one of

McCain's former campaigns were concerned about his relationship with a

lobbyist named Vicki Eisman. There were references to a romantic

...