An Open letter to ABC

vanity | 10/16 | Wil H

[Wil H]

Seemingly in response to Mark Halperin’s Call to Arms to get John Kerry elected, Ted Koppell went on the offensive on Thursday against the Swiftboat Vets in an attempt to discredit their claims that John Kerry embellished his war record to seek medals.

Koppell focused on just one incident where he felt he had good evidence to directly contradict the Swiftboat Vets claims. Unfortunately for Koppell, the “evidence” he cited was testimony from Vietnamese peasants given under the watchful gaze of Communist Government minders.

I don’t know if Mr. Koppell has ever been in such a situation himself, but I have, and the information given is always exactly what the government wants to be said, and likely has no relation to the truth.

Furthermore, the claims this evidence contradicted, were John Kerry’s very own testimony, documented in his own book, “Tour of Duty” and corroborated in a book written by the Boston Globe, who are hardly detractors of Senator Kerry.

So either the communist peasants, or John Kerry, are liars. I guess it’s a tough choice.

At the end of the segment in Koppell’s closing thought, he made a statement about their duty to tell the truth and their duty not to conceal any truth., which he viewed, would be lying by omission.

Therefore my question to Ted Koppell is this. Given that you went to enormous trouble and expense to send an investigative team to Vietnam to research the Swifboat Vet’s claims it seems highly unlikely that they only investigated one incident of the many cited in “Unfit for Command”.

That being so, what are we to conclude from you investigations? You have made no claims against any other part of “Unfit for Command”

Did you not find anything else to contradict the Swiftboat Vets, and therefore we should assume you that everything else in their book cannot be questioned?

If that is the case, sir, by your own definition you are lying by omission.

[Jarhead1957]

The Always Back Commies Network probably fit right in in Vietnam.

[sgtbono2002]

The only thing this proved was that ABC and CBS are both so biased they arent fit to watch.

[clifcrds]

The fact that the MSM is putting this much energy and resources into trying to discredit a Kerry opponent just proves that the Mediacryts are trying to influence rather then inform the public.

[ThanhPhero]

I rather doubt that the Communists directed the exchange. They were probably reluctant to allow the filming at all. They do not want to do anything to sour their relationship with the President of the US which may well be Mr. Bush for the next four years. They did not want to get bad press by refusing ABC either. They probably put out a call for anyone who participated in actions in the general area against Swift boats and just told them to talk about their experience in raids. The stories don't coincide with either the Swiftees' or Kerry's testimony because the VIets were trying to please their interlocutors with war memories. If the director made suggestions like, well do you remember the really tall American? someone would say yes,yes, I remember him, and anyone that did see him would remember him because he was a giant among giants. The Viets, from the rurals who were unwilling pawns in the war to the ones who fought with enthusiasm and including most of the government men only want to please America and Americans now. They need America as a protector because the last thing the veecees want is to be the Chinese Riviera. At the same time they want to keep their jobs. Those not part of the government and many in the government, too, look at America as the Promised Land and Americans as the people who made it so. They do not wish to jeopardize their relationship with America.

[4woodenboats]

"Koppell focused on just one incident where he felt he had good evidence to directly contradict the Swiftboat Vets claims. Unfortunately for Koppell, the “evidence” he cited was testimony from Vietnamese peasants given under the watchful gaze of Communist Government minders."

Due to the unlikelyhood of anyone ever being allowed to attempt to corroborate his story, Koppel apparently felt he was safe to fabricate any evidence he wanted. For some reason, he was under the impression that the only contradictory evidence was from O'Neil's book, and completely missed the fact that 2 biographys based on Kerry's own words said the exact same thing. At least that's what it sounded like when listening to the audio clip.

I don't think he possibly could have set this trip up without Kerry's help, and as a matter of courtesy simply wouldn't have. Somewhere there was a major disconnect on the story, but as belligerent as Ted proved himself to be, I wouldn't be surprised if some junior producer tried and tried to tell him, then just finally gave up and handed him the rope.

Evil can be a mischevious thing, in that it doesn't care who gets burned as long as someone does, even if it's the host.

Koppel & Rather are brilliantly illuminated examples of that.

[Marine_Uncle]

Amen to your post! I could not worded it any better.
Koppell has pretended for years to be a somewhat neutral. In my opinion this now shows his true colors! Of course there is no way he could have been a political neutral and worked all these years for ABC. But he finally came out of the closet with this one!
Hey hey, I wonder if in another week or so, we shall see the DNC importing Viet Cong goops that know a little english to speak in his behalf at dombo rallies!

[Marine_Uncle]

I tend strongly to believe your analysis. Surely the peoples of your mother land would mostly love to have a democracy for those that have a glint of what it represents. Freedom of choice. Big John Kerry did his best to make sure your peoples did not get the opportunity to taste the joy of real freedom. How proud Lurch must feel inside, that he had the honor to work with communists and trash the American military and efforts made in behave of America to set up a soverign nation of South Vietnam.
Now your peoples will never know what freedom really encompasses. How mixed up in some ways you must feel about how America could ever went off on such a screwy tangent in the fight against communism. Imagine how the peoples of Afganistan and Iraq are going to feel if Lurch gets in and then turns his back on them. And the American people will as usual not have a clue as to what attrocities have been commited, by a bag of dead bones that only knows how to debate with clever lies and distortions.

[blake6900]

What little credibility Koppell had as a "reporter" was quickly lost when the Nightline piece was broadcast. It was clearly an attempt to prop Kerry up. However, ABC made the fatal error of inviting John O'Neill onto the program and he simply made Koppell look like the pathetic liberal shill that many of us have always known him to be. When he asked O'Neill to stop showing books and just answer the questions it was obvious Koppell felt like he had lost control over the propagandist program he was striving to present.

O'Neill did a masterful job of stripping Koppell of whatever preconceived notions of objectivity he may haved possessed and then, not content to simply embarrass the man, continued to verbally b!tch-slap Koppell until it was clear ol' Ted was happy to see the end of the program draw near. In short, he played Koppell like a cheap fiddle. And while Ted's closing remarks were meant to add reason, substance and fairness-not to mention pure spin-to what was obviously a hit piece against Kerry's detractors, it was clear that by the time he had finished his monologue even he knew he'd fooled no one.

The good thing about elitists is they never know they're being elitist. They're simply never that adept at fooling anyone because their scam to so easy to see.