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Posted on 08/15/2004 4:58:54 PM PDT by SteveH
____:
Our executive editor, Susan Goldberg, asked me to respond to your recent e-mail about Sen. Kerry's wartime claims. This is a topic we have devoted several stories to during this presidential campaign.
As early as January 2004, we wrote a story that touched on how Kerry's wartime experience shaped him.
In February, Mercury News Washington Bureau reporter Jim Puzzanghera wrote a profile of Kerry that detailed the actions that led to his military honors.
In April, after the Boston Globe began questioning the circumstances of Kerry's first Purple Heart, we ran a New York Times article saying the campaign would release all of his military records.
In May, as the controversy continued, we had a short piece in which former Sen. Bob Dole said he wasn't making much of the stories surrounding the claims. "I don't think it matters," he told Fox News Sunday.
And in August, after the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth began airing its 60-second television ad accusing Kerry of lying about his war record, our Washington Bureau wrote a story. In the piece, Sen. John McCain said the ad was "dishonest and dishonorable."
This strikes me as one of those topics that we might never get to the bottom of, no matter how many resources we devoted to it. With so many other issues to explore during this presidential campaign, we feel we have given this topic a fair and proper examination.
Thanks for taking the time to write.
Sincerely,
Rich Ramirez Assistant to the Executive Editor
-----Original Message-----
From: ________
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004
To: jpuzzanghera@krwashington.com;
sgoldberg@mercurynews.com
Subject: please investigate Kerry's wartime claims
Senator Kerry claims he is a wartime hero. Therefore please investigate Kerry's wartime claims for veracity. Thank you.
________
[as sent by me, my original message contained the appended.]
Time for straight answers from John Kerry UPI/Insight
August 12, 2004
Richard Tomkins
http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/07/19/Commentary/Time-For.Straight.Answers.From.John.Kerry-702262.shtml
[see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1190134/posts]
To: Richard Ramirez
Cc: Jim Puzzanghera, Susan Goldberg
Date: Thursday, August 12, 2004
Dear Mr. Ramirez:
First thank you for responding.
However, your response does not reconcile well with new facts regarding the Kerry campaign.
In 1979 and 1986, Mr. Kerry created much political publicity for himself by claiming to have participated in clandestine operations in Cambodia in Dec. 1968, at the direction of President Nixon. Presidential candidate Kerry's character and veracity is in question because he used the publicity in building his political career to its current height.
However, the Swift Boat Veterans and others have recently called the Cambodia story and others into question. In particular, in regards to the Cambodia story, Mr. Kerry has now (Aug. 12, 2004) retracted it under pressure from the Swift Boat Vets.
Add to this the fact that Kerry's then political target, Richard Nixon was not president in December 1968-- Johnson was.
By your own admission, Kerry's character is defined largely by his Vietnam experiences. Now Kerry has retracted his famous Cambodia story under pressure, but not pressure from Mercury News reporting. The Mercury News apparently fails to report even Kerry's retraction.
If Kerry's penchant for misrepresenting his own record-- now admitted by his own campaign-- "does not matter," then why did his campaign take the trouble to retract them?
Why hasn't the Mercury News followed up on Kerry's offer to release "all" of his military records, when he has never done so?
What else about Kerry do we not yet know about, due to insufficient or biased reporting?
Have we as a people now learned that character does not matter when considering which presidential candidate to vote for?
Who is being dishonest and dishonorable?
__________
"This was promptly followed by another story, similarly touching upon how Kerry's experiences straddling a doghouse and pretending to fight the Red Baron also 'shaped him,' in turn." :)
The sure sign of the Kool-Aid drinker. Kerry shaped his war time experiences to aid his political aspirations. If people don't understand this basic principle, they will miss the entire thrust of the argument.
Nice. Good work.
Great response...............please post if and when you get an answer............isn't it funny how they all basically want this just to go away??..........to them , it's just politics the Dem way, and who are they to question it????.........AND God forbid, if we do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good ole San Jose Mercury. Certainly can tell that they are in the donkey's corner. Nothing negative about Kerry and no regrets to what has or has not been published. Typical of so many newspapers.
This is nothing short of pathetic.
And, they call themselves professionals?
Nice response. May I ask a question: how did they cover the accusations against George W. Bush that he was a deserter or awol?
The SJ Mercury isn't even worth lining a birdcage with.
To say that Kerry's statements don't matter is to reduce the presidential election to nothing more than a popularity contest, as opposed to an election based on principles, ideology, and character.
Kerry promised Tim Russert he would release all his military records too.....but he didn't.
Is this for real? You ask them to investigate Kerry's claims, and their response is "But we've already written several puff pieces on Kerry and quoted two people saying that it deosn't matter! What more can we do?!"
Yeah, we be too f******ing stupid to know that Nixon wasn't president in 1968. Or that the Khmer Rouge didn't exist back then. And we always take John baby's word on these matters.
Don't confuse us with facts. There is nothing here. It is all about sex. Move on.
Good first draft. However, you forgot to mention that the Kerry campaign has yet to release his military service records. Since this is something that the SJMN had reported earlier, where is the newspaper's follow-up story on the Kerry campaign's failure to do so?
His war time recods should be short.Th idiot was only there for four months.
The duplicity of the media never ends.
You rock Steve! That was fantastic
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