Will Media Hold Kerry to Same Standard:No Vietnam in TV Ads? (Vietnam Movie Produced by Kerry)

MRC ^ | Friday March 5, 2004 | BrentBaker

[fight_truth_decay]

So, given the news media's standard that any fleeting scenes of a day when 3,000 Americans were killed is inappropriate exploitation, can we expect the media to apply the same standard to John Kerry in the future about Vietnam where more than 50,000 Americans were killed? Kerry's primary campaign has already showcased video of him in Vietnam, video a 1996 Boston Globe revelation suggests may have been from a staged re-enactment conducted by Kerry.

On FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume on Thursday, the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes mockingly quipped about any Kerry use of Vietnam: "‘57,000 Americans died there. How could he be so hypocritical to demean them by using them in an ad?' That's what you could argue. Of course it's preposterous just as it's preposterous these claims that are made by critics of Bush."

Back on February 27, OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web" column by James Taranto picked up on how in a column The Hill newspaper, a paper which covers Capitol Hill, National Review's Byron York reported that "there is a movie about Kerry's Vietnam experience, produced and directed by John Kerry." York described a 1996 report in the Boston Globe:

"Kerry told reporter Charles Sennott the oft-repeated story of the February 1969 firefight in which Kerry attacked the Viet Cong who ambushed his Swift boat....

"The future senator was so 'focused on his future ambitions,' Sennott reported, that he bought a Super-8 movie camera, returned to the scene, and re-enacted the skirmish on film. "It was that film, transferred to videotape, that Kerry played for Sennott. "'I'll show you where they shot from. See? That's the hole covered up with reeds,' Kerry said as he ran the tape in slow motion... "Through hours of watching the films in the den of his newly renovated Beacon Hill mansion, it becomes apparent that these are memories and footage he returns to often,' Sennott wrote."

For the February 27 "Best of the Web" column: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004750

For York's piece in the February 26 edition of The Hill: http://www.thehill.com/york/022604.aspx

-- Brent Baker

[Colonel_Flagg]

So, given the news media's standard that any fleeting scenes of a day when 3,000 Americans were killed is inappropriate exploitation, can we expect the media to apply the same standard to John Kerry in the future about Vietnam where more than 50,000 Americans were killed?

Of course not. Next?

[Samwise]

How many firemen and policemen have reenacted and filmed their heroics on 9/11?

[Conspiracy Guy]

I will post my rant on all these threads.

Why doesn't the media interview me? I could tell how offended I am by John Kerry's traitorous activities since coming home from Nam. I could discuss the fact that I have no idea where Kerry stands on any given issue at any given time since he appears to have no stand.

Though I feel for the families who lost someone on 9/11, the attacks are not their private property. The attacks were aimed at every American. I am sick of people acting like because they lost someone, this is private. Their loss is private but the attacks were not. I will never forget that it was an attack on me, my family, my friends, my nation. I take it personal as should every American.

If George W. Bush wants to use 9/11 in his campaign, that is his right. He was attacked too. His response to the attacks shows the character and courage his predecessor did not have when we were attacked so many times during those 8 dark years.

God Bless America and George W. Bush.

Conspiracy Guy 3/5/4

[TomGuy]

When the Dems don't have issues to discuss, they grasp at straws--the current ads, the flight suit carrier landing, etc.


The only thing I foresee is this: 8 months of politiking and political ads are going to get very old. Both parties need to be careful of over-exposure that would result in significant apathy if they blast ads for 8 months.

[SAMWolf]

Kerry is a POS who's sell his Country out for power. He's a male version of Hillary.

[Cubs Fan]

Kerry's ONLY campaign issue thus far has been Viet Nam. So where are the family members of people who died in Viet Nam (and I KNOW there are a lot of them) who don't like Kerry using Viet Nam as a political prop? Why aren't they being interviewed on TV by the media?

(and BTW the media can't find ONE family to interview who lost someone in 9-11 who thinks Bush has every right to run on his record of how he responded to the events of 9-11?)

The mainstream media has never been more liberal, the bias never more blatant.

[cwb]

Rush just played a Kerry/Vietnam ad and burned a caller who said she would disapprove of it if Kerry exploited his service, the way Bush is expoiting 9/11. It was hillarious.

After listening to Rush's montage of the berieved victims of 9/11 attacking Bush, it has become obvious that an alliance has been created between these so-called victims and the DNC. It is no longer a coincidence that "some" of these family members are now spouting the exact same talking points. From the claims that "if Bush wants to make an ad, he should show himself reading a book to school children when the towers came down" to, "Bush needs to cooperate with the 9/11 commission," these people are no longer victims, but activists in pursuit of a Demoratic agenda. They are victims no longer.

[lilylangtree]

I saw the President's advertisement and I thought it was well done, thoughtful. We can't ignore what occurred on 911. We've got troops fighting to locate that miserable little whiner OBL as a result of 911. People need refreshing of "that day that will live in infamy." Pres. Bush's political advertisement is beautiful. But this post just shows that Kerry goes by that old demoncRAT line: "Do as I say not as I do."

[Republican Red]

Just heard Rush. It was beautiful. It's all too obvious these family members were coached by the DNC. He even had the phrase "3000 people murdered on his watch" used by these family members as well as Kate Couric and some Dem congressmen.

How pathetic!

[Always Right]

The more obvious comparison is Iraq. The Democratic candidates had politicized the Iraqi War for months and to get upset over politicizing 9-11 is extremely hypocritical.

[cav68]

My Friends and fellow troopers gave their lives for this country with no regret, but to set here and think of John Kerry using them as symbols for his campaign would make these brave men turn over in their graves. No one has that right, him especially after utilizing a loop hole so conveniently to Escape his Full Tour of Duty, to leave his buddies, I am using the Term very loosely because he is one as I can see that had no friends there maybe an illusion of what he created again in his mind. My heart aches during a time of so much uncertainty in the world we live in and to think of this man actually believing people will take any truths from him. I have been invited to my sons school to talk about the War-in Vietnam and I can only pray that no one ask me how I feel about this idiot and his tour.

[joesnuffy]

Kerry is such a POS

He has done more for bringing dishonor on veterans than any single person in history...
and he aint even president...

I wouldnt be surprised if he were elected tomorrow that the military would rebel....
and we would end up with a junta...

Of course if they got rid of Hollywood...Hillary and her ilk...maybe that wouldnt be so bad.....

[Mo1]

I'm listening to Rush and he had a women caller on saying she was a life long Republican and saying how upset she was that President used 9/11 in these ads.

Rush then asked her if she would be just as upset if Kerry used Vietnam in Ads and she said yes but that he didn't do that and Bush did

Soooooooooo .. then Rush played an Ad that Kerry had about his Vietnam service and part of the speech he gave on Capital Hill .. it ran in September

The women didn't seem upset about it after all ... hmmmm

Last night Chris Mathews interviewed Monica Gabriel and asked if she would be upset if Kerry used 9/11 in campaign Ads

At first she wouldn't answer .. then after a bit she said she would be upset about it

Now I am hearing that Kerry has used 9/11 in campaign ads being sent to fire fighters

[cwb]

It is pathetic. Through the entire Clinton era, he and the media conspired to present the public with visual images that would emote a sense of character. From the rocks he made into a cross on Normandy to his entrance and exit from church, with a Bible in his hand. Did the media ever chase down WWII vets and their families to ask how they felt about a draft-dodger honoring their loved ones memories? Did they ever question Clinton's use of a Bible to invoke religious belonging...when his own acts were far from his Faith? Hell NO!

And now Rush and Drudge have clips of Kerry using his "3 Purple Hearts as a Swiftboat Commander," touting his leadership and heroism in Vietnam as a political tool for the highest office in the land. Has the media said a thing about this exploitation? Will they chase down the thousands of Vietnam Vets, who already despise this man, and ask them "how do you feel about this exploitation?"

Kerry "stages" a campaign event with the man he saved in Vietnam...and says he will use him in other ads, and yet the media says nothing about it. Why is it OK for Kerry to exploit his Vietnam record from 30 years ago...and portray himself as a hero, while the President is attacked for reminding "America" of its persiverance after the worst attack on American soil, less than 3 years ago? And unlike the Kerry ads that are all about him, Bush's ads are a positive recognition of "America's" strenght and greatness.

O'Reilly asked this question to two 9/11 victims (family members) last night and the man stumbled all over himself trying to defend his position. He sounded like a fool attacking Bush for exploiting the deaths of 3,000 people as he couldn't answer about Kerry's exploitation of 58,000 people.
As the "victim" defended Kerry as a commander who deserved to trumpet his heroism, O'Reilly reminided the Democratic troll that Bush was the Commmander and Chief during this country's worst attack in history. There's always two sets of rules when playing with the mediacrats.

[Republican Red]

Now I am hearing that Kerry has used 9/11 in campaign ads being sent to fire fighters

Steve Doucey from Fox & Friends, read an email this morning from a NY firefighter who related that the Firefighter Union has been using images of 9/11 in Kerry cmapaign literature.

[cwb]

Glenn Beck had a firefighter on who said they are getting sick of the union shoving Kerry down their throats. Every week, these firefighters are getting fliers on Kerry's leadership...with many of them also using 9/11 as a backdrop. While the media plays up Kerry's support from the firefighter's "union," they ignore the much larger membership, who oppose Kerry. Ironically, it is the media and the dems who are using this specific union (Firefighters) as a means to beat Bush over the head...insinuating that firefighters from 9/11 are also disgusted with Bush. They are the ones exploiting this tragedy.

[talleyman]

Why doesn't the media interview me?

Same reason they don't ask any of us - they don't want to hear what we have to say.

[Peach]

I listened in the car. Also Joseph Moran's brother was on. Excellent show today.

[lonerepubinma]

Sooo!!! Not only did he disobey orders by beaching his boat and putting his men into harms way the FIRST time, He went back and did it again so he could film it. I always thought there was something up with that film, If I was just fired upon by a rocket grenade I would not have a color super 8 pointed at the jungle.