Posted on 10/16/2004 10:49:18 AM PDT by Davis
As everyone who reads these Conning Towers already knows, Ding the NYTimes is dead. Still publishing, sure, but undeniably dead.
Zombie-like, the corpse bestirred itself and aimed a fusillade of blanks at Sinclair Broadcasting Group and its affiliated TV stations. What had Sinclair done to enrage the panjandrums at the Times including, no doubt, Prince Sulzberger, last and least of the Ochs-Sulzberger dynasty?
Well, Sinclair declared its intention to broadcast a documentary, Stolen Honor, concerning the post-Vietnam adventures of Space Cadet John Kerry.
The Times does not want the film broadcast because it's a "... propaganda film ... that labels Senator John Kerry a liar, a traitor and a ‘willing accomplice' of the enemy during the Vietnam War. It claims, falsely, that his antiwar statements inspired the North Vietnamese to step up the torture of American prisoners, and it is filled with other distortions about the war in Vietnam."
Labeling it a propaganda film doesn't change its nature. It's a documentary as much as any of Michael Moore's films are documentaries--which the Times has never dismissed as "propaganda" and has lavished acres of newsprint on. Besides, there is ample evidence that Senator Kerry has been lying about his actions in Vietnam and about his activities on behalf of the Fonda touring troupe, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
There is ample evidence that Kerry's atrocity testimony before the Senate committee in 1971 was false. There is evidence—as the Times conceded just the other day in a correction to an account it had previously published—that John Kerry met with Communist delegations in Paris during wartime.
The Times says it is false that this caused the Vietcong to step up the torture of American prisoners, but there's no good reason to think that it didn't do just that.
In any case, there is no reason in the world that the program should not be broadcast except... except... that it will prove uncomfortable for the Kerry campaign and for the Times. The Times is so open-minded that its brains fell out years ago, but the Times desperately wants Kerry to win.
So, while declaring Sinclair out of bounds, the Times continues its tradition of silence on matters that are embarrassing to Mr. Kerry.
Search the Times for any criticism of Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia fable and the frayed CIA hat; search it for any questioning of his Purple Hearts, the mysterious V on his Silver Star and why it was awarded three times with different text over a span of eight years. Continue to search for any factual refutation of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Silence, just silence.
The Times is concerned with the broadcast of Stolen Honor so close to the election but is silent about the offer of the Sinclair people to give Kerry equal time to respond—turned down out of hand by Kerry's campaign people, naturellement. The Times also fails to note that Senator Kerry has had since March to answer the substance of these charges but has never done so. Nor has he authorized release of his service records, a reasonable demand of the Swiftees and the blogosphere.
The Times could not bring itself to conclude that the Burkett-Rather-Lockhart forgeries were exactly what the entire nation knew them to be, forgeries aimed at wounding President Bush. Four Times reporters drew bylines for a piece declaring the forged memos to be accurate—which was really the issue, you see. Whether they were forgeries was irrelevant.
Similar silence was observed by the Times this week when a memo from ABC News Political Director to the staff was published by Matt Drudge and circulated widely. That memo directed the ABC news staff to attack Bush for "distortions" and to lay off Senator Kerry.
The Times scores Sinclair for being "...one of the nation's most powerful television conglomerates." All conglomerate are evil, of course, although Sinclair is puny compared with ABC. The Times is sharp and can tell the good guys from the bad guys by employing quasi-Animal Farm standards. Sinclair-Swiftees bad; ABC, CBS (and of course, the Times itself) good.
The Times wants the FCC to act to punish or prevent Sinclair from broadcasting Stolen Honor because Sinclair isn't being fair and reasonable and isn't acting in the public interest by giving air time to an anti-Kerry documentary. The Times is free to publish as it pleases, protected by the First Amendment. Sinclair has no First Amendment rights or has waived them or something. And anyway, shut up!
What they are suggesting is that the authors, who tell the truth in Stolen Valor - lie about Kerry; and that would make this production 'okay'. . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.