Posted on 08/14/2004 12:15:49 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The genie is out of the bottle. The best efforts of the mainstream media to blockade the story of Kerry’s lies about Cambodia, and the charges by the vast majority of men who served with him in the Swift Boat operations, have failed. Glenn Reynolds prints a telling letter from a reader who requests anonymity. Read the entire entry, but here are the key sentences:
...last night I was talking to a friend who is a hardcore liberal Democrat and is, in fact, a first cousin of a very well-known Democratic Senator. He was very upset about the Kerry-Swift Vet-Cambodia controversy. He blamed Kerry for the whole thing, saying he had set himself up for this problem by making Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign. Two things struck me about this. First, this is a guy who gets all of his news from the biggies - the NYT, NPR, and CNN - and yet he knew all about the story. That means the Big Media filter isn't preventing the story from reaching people. Second, he had concluded that Kerry deserves the criticism and is lacking in credibility. This is a guy who, if there were any yes-but talking points in defense of Kerry, surely would have stuck to them. This says to me that if Big Media is in the tank for Kerry, they may actually have hurt him by not covering this story. They've abdicated coverage of a story that is negative to Kerry to the Blogosphere, thus resulting in more damage to their favored candidate than if they'd reported on the story, but with an eye toward knocking it down. They can pretend the story isn't there, but they can't make blogs go away.
Glenn adds:
...they're damaging themselves as more and more people notice that they're ignoring it.Just so. Credibility, once lost, is difficult to re-establish. Ask Bill Clinton.
In April, I used the metaphor of a driver stuck in snow, who presses the accelerator, and finds the spinning wheels only melting more snow, making traction all the more difficult. The current efforts of the press to define Kerry’s lies as a non-event are destroying their own traction. The media eruption over far less serious charges about Bush’s National Guard service is too fresh in the recesses of most peoples’ minds. And, of course, Bush didn’t choose to run for re-election on the basis of his honorable, even brave service as a jet jockey, a highly dangerous occupation.
But it is summer now. So let me switch metaphors. The establishment press is facing its Gottedamerung – the twilight of the gods. For decades, god-like figures handed down their version of the truth from corporate Valhallas like the New York Times and CBS News. The public credulously accepted their writ on what is important and what is not important.
But god-like pretensions are dangerous, indeed, often fatal. Especially when combined with mono-maniacal convictions on the need for their point of view to prevail. Post-modernity, a concept beloved of the bien pensants, cuts two ways. The public is skeptical of anyone who pretends to be an authoritative gatekeeper of knowledge. Kerry, who has never cut much of a figure as a genuine, warm, empathetic human being, is an ideal target for citizen skepticism.
The establishment press is coming across as every bit as pompous and conniving as the man who married two centi-millionaire heiresses.
They are, in fact, destroying themselves. Their industry is in serious trouble. Circulation scandals have hit major newspaper publishers, while the scandal-free press can take little comfort in their declining readership. Network TV news is a shadow of its former self, and its future is very limited. CNN’s monopoly is shattered, and it boasts a poor fraction of the viewership of Fox News, the only cable news outlet fully covering Kerrygate with the same seriousness accorded Bush’s National Guard service questions.
The blogosphere is the camel whose nose, and now a good part of its neck, is under the tent. Leadership in coverage of the self-destruction of the Kerry Campaign is in the hands of Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt (guru to many of us), Powerline, Captain’s Quarters, Just One Minute, and many other bloggers.
Nobody had ever heard of Bob Woodward until Watergate. Afterward, he became a powerful brand name, and his and Bernstein's work inspired generations of new journalists. The same phenomenon is taking place today, and journalism will never be the same again. The big difference is that this time around, there is a technological revolution compounding the destructive force operating on the old media. Hurricane Charley has nothing on the winds of change now blowing away the old media practices and economics.
Future historians are going to find this election deeply significant for not just War on Terror policy reasons. This is a transformative election for the structure of political information.
FYI I heard O"Neil say that they had sold $200,000 copies of the book. The TV ad is producing donations. I do't think there is a more powerful network in the country than the network of Vets. I think it touches every family. This has been masterfully marketed by someone who knows how to get around the media.
And I lived through it, complaining and seeking complete truth and "the rest of the stories;" here it is more than fifty years later and the end is in sight.
I've lived long enough to see lesser accomplishments such as the end of the USSR. Now for the important stuff.
North Vietnam's General Giap's Most Valuable Guerillas are about to be captured. (Tried, convicted and hanged?)
McCain is very sensitive about anything related to wrongdoing by US personnel during the SE Asian Unpleasantness. He does not want anyone to talk about the C word - collaboration. I'd rather see him blasted out of the Senate than Teddy K.
I'm going to break a long-standing tradition and actually watch Saturday Night Live for the first time in many years.
I'm hoping that they'll do a "Christmas in Cambodia" skit. If they do, I'll take that as a very good sign that kerry's swirling around the bowl about to go down the toilet. (Well, I can hope, can't I?)
That stuff is usually past my bedtime but I might do likewise. I swear, this mess is so ripe and juicy I don't see how the late-night comedians can possibly resist it from now till November. Can you just imagine the fun that could be had with Kerry's obviously Apocalypse Now inspired "Lucky hat" story in that now oft-excerpted WaPo interview?
the barnes and noble in Birmingham, AL won't be getting this book until Sept 15th...the demand was just too high!
I am not so sure of that as you are, but even if Kerry was/is not in on the fix, what would it take to force him out? I for one think that if the New York Times, and ABCBSNBC thought Hillary would have a chance, they would begin playing up 24/7 all of the negatives against Kerry and he would be forced out.
Not out of the realm of possibility. If you were paying close attention at the time, the Mainstream Media turned on Dean big-time almost exactly two weeks before the Yeeaaghh! moment.
It's probably not the 1000th time..!!!
This is an easy question. The right wing of the Republican Party will split off.
I am only a Republican because the Democrats are too far left for me. The (leadership of the) Republican party is too far left for me, but as long as Democrats have a chance to gain power I will stick with them.
Once a stake has been driven through the heart of the Democratic Party, I will be willing to move to any party to the right of the Republicans.
only if we're lucky
Amen
There are at least two polls out there now that say you are wrong. Both show that about 60% of the people know about the Swift Vets' charges. Undecided voters who know of the charges are breaking 3-to-1 against Kerry.
The point of this article is that the establishment media does not have the power it once had to mold opinion. These polls are showing that to be true. People are finding out about the story anyway, and they are not believing the line that it's all just a smear.
This ad by the Swift Vets has been devastatingly effective, and 90% of that effect has come from the Internet. Very few people have actually seen the ad run on TV.
I agree
Smart not to mess with a vote leaning our way. As Kerry implodes even more, maybe he won't even need to hold his nose.
WOW! I pray this is true.
Bump to read more later.
The early indications would seem to agree with you, but the jury is still out.
Lets see what the next two weeks of polls say.
Also, keep in mind that the ballots haven't been printed yet. The Democrats can still switch candidates on us up until the end of our own Convention next month (although that would probably hurt them, too).
But if the Democrats saw Senator Kerry go the way of Dean after the Scream...then all bets are off.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Credibility, once lost, is difficult to re-establish. Ask Bill Clinton.
Once you're a pickle, you can't go back to being a cucumber.
Never, EVER use the words "Clinton," "pickle" and "cucumber" together in a sentence again. Thank you. :)
As good as a network of vets is, consider this: There are millions of us out here; a good many of us are carrying out individual guerilla operations, talking to and emailing links and articles to friends, family and co-workers. For me, this ain't just politics; this is personal.
All of these actions are going on under the media's radar. It may take a while to gain some steam but, in the end, they'll be wondering where the he!! the 'veteran backlash' came from.
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