Is There a Reason This is in the Times???

This morning, like every morning, I read the NYTimes to get a feel for what the MSM views as the important issues of the day. I especially enjoy seeing what topic discussed yesterday on the blogs has now arrived as a new story in the print media.

Within the DC/political news portion of the National section is a column called "Caucus", which is a series of short takes regarding the various Presidential campaigns. Its the Times "blog" section in print. They apparently keep it very, very light. Because. you know, those bloggers are not adult enough to discuss serious issues. One piece leapt out at me as pointless, stupid and utterly baffling as to why it appears at all in print, which is a limited medium unlike our beloved internet tubes.

The "story" is this:

In last Thursday’s debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, Mrs. Clinton was seen with a bottle of Dasani water, a Coca-Cola product, while Mr. Obama drank Pepsi’s Aquafina water.

Wow! Breaking news, right? There must be something behind such bold, and oviously intentional, choices. Big corporate money fueling every small decision by the candidates. The Times tells it thusly

Mr. Obama raised more money than Mrs. Clinton from Coke employees ($4,300 versus her $2,300), while Mrs. Clinton took in more from Pepsi people ($4,600 to his $3,050), according to the candidates’ campaign finance reports.

So what's the story? They use a given consumer product, but its not manufacted by the company that has been a big campaign contributor? There's no connection between the brand they used and their campaign? An issue that no one cared about is shown to not be an issue? A story about a non-story. What a stupid waste of space.

Though no more relevant, but slightly more interesting is this snippet from another Caucus segment

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to "Battlefield Earth," a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

Is he trying to change his image from being so closely tied with the Mormon church? Or does he just have crappy taste in books?