Posted on 08/15/2004 8:11:38 AM PDT by sharpink
I can't I was surprised when I saw Meet The Press this morning. They summed up Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth as Texas (AKA George Bush) Republicans questioning Kerry's war record. Pundits also managed to praise McCain and condemn Bush for not denouncing the veterans.
The best part however is how the host filling in for Tim Russert described Christmas in Cambodia. Evidently Kerry misspoke about being in Christmas in Cambodia. I think more appropriately the event was misseared into his memory. Old media is doing its dangdest to ignore new media like talk radio and the internet. Maybe Fox News will do a better job.
The O'Neill snowball is gathering size and speed.
I hope so but I think this story is doomed to fly below the radar.
I've never seen firing line. You are right about the pundits though. There is never any accountability or sense of proportion. Every issue is addressed as if there is no history or context. They live in perpetual present with no history governed entirely by world views.
It has been transferring via the 'sneaker network'.
You tell 2 friends, they tell 2 friends, and so on & so on & so on.....
Here is the below the radar means of communication: Internet to talk radio to veterans to VFW posts in every community in the US. But those posts are most active in the red states and in the "purple" states (swing states). Then from the VFW posts into families, into businesses, into civic organizations like the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce.
By that route, this story will reach easily 60% of the US population, and in a more effective means -- word of mouth, rather than merely TV advertising. And this story by itself can cause a 2.5% move in public opinion. And that may be the end of Kerry's campaign.
So, though this is below the radar, that does not mean it is ineffective. Remember General Buck Turgeson in Dr. Strangelove, "Can he get through? I mean, if the pilot is really good -- puts it down on the deck like he's fryin' chickens in the barnyard -- Hell, yes...."
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
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