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.
"IF THE MEDIA START TO COVER THIS FAIRLY AND WITH AN OPEN MIND..."
Heh, heh, heh.........heh, heh, heh, heh, heh....ha, haa, haaa, haaaa..........ah ha ha, ah a ha,......aaaahhhaaaaa, aaaahhhaaaaa, aaaahhhaaaaa.....stop....stop....My stomach.....aaaahhhaaaaa, aaaahhhaaaaa.....
I think if the story told by O'Neil and the Swiftvets were somehow conclusively proven to be true in a way that not even Terry McAuliffe could dispute, then Chris Matthews' head would explode.
Because HE'S John Kerry. You don't question John Kerry. And the media carries water for John Kerry so he can say and do anything he wants.
This mindset of Kerry's however, can only go so far, and he's waaaayyyyy over the line already. The media will expose him only slightly before they realize their reputation is about to crumble. Won't be long, now.
Go further back to the original JFK years. The affairs that the LSM covered up, the buyoffs of Senator (maybe pre Senate) JFK shacking up with a Soviet spy, etc.
Then there the application of Dem power:
One story I heard repeated recently, was that rare time Teddy Kennedy got in to some trouble in Boston.
President JFK summoned the publisher of the Boston Globe to the oval office.
The end result was that the story was below the fold (can't see it on the newstands...) in much smaller type and # of
columns than how a real newspaper would treat such a story.
Nice analysis, it is the reality we live in.
We should ALL be calling Barnes and Noble and asking if they have 2 or 4 or 5 copies of "Unfit for Command". Make them continue to say that they don't have any, make them agree to order more, and buy as many copies as you can get your hands on (I think the book would make nice Labor Day reading!)
The point is that demand is created by consumer interest. Do your part and help create demand.
Maybe. But the fact that the Dems' schedule for the primaries was so truncated, that it began with the Iowa cuacuses (packed with the most left leaning, anti-war delegates) and then went to NH (also far to the left of the country) rather assured this result.
RATS, including Terry McAwful, now realize that Kerry is a fraud, sold them a bill of goods, and has been totally compromised. They should have chosen Edwards.
Just desserts. They wanted this dud, and now they are stuck with him.
Anybody notice that none of the elected elders -- Biden, Levin, Breaux, Graham -- is coming out to defend Kerry on Vietnam? Just the paid hacks. Tells a lot.
If not the Swift Vet story in particular, this election cycle will break the back of the lib media - they will either adapt to reality or perish.
Keep complaining and boycotting - they don't care but their boards and their advertisers do.
bump
As usual, your reasoning and conclusions are faultless.
Do you have to f*%!@ing "shout"?
Keep your eye on Kerry this weekend --- taking two days off -- he is going to try to pull some stunt when he addresses the VFW this week to try to "get this behind him."
Be ready for more lies.
Has McAuliffe been out on any shows attacking the Swifties?
Just came from the NYTimes website where I searched for Cambodia. NADA on Kerry, but an Aug 8 reprise on Nixon's resignations.
Pathetic and true.
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.
