Posted on 08/18/2004 7:05:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
Back in February, the three broadcast networks were obsessed with the story of President Bush’s National Guard service. But in May, when John Kerry’s former Navy colleagues from Vietnam went to the National Press Club to charge that Kerry’s tales of heroism as a Swift Boat commander were highly exaggerated, those same networks acted as if their job was to bury the news, not report it.
Back on May 4, ABC and NBC ignored the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s press conference, while CBS’s Byron Pitts claimed the veterans had merely “unleashed decades of bitterness.” His Evening News story ignored Kerry’s record, but challenged his critics: “If you think this is just a concerned group of veterans, think again.”
Even though the Swift Vets have now published a book, Unfit for Command, and sponsored a TV ad, the networks still aren’t investigating their charges. MRC analysts examined ABC, CBS and NBC’s morning and evening news shows. They found 75 stories this year questioning Bush’s National Guard service, but only nine detailing any of the Swift Vets’ anti-Kerry charges, an eight-to-one disparity. But the networks’ double standard runs far deeper than the amount of coverage:
• Partisanship: The “AWOL” story got its legs February 1 when Democratic boss Terry McAuliffe appeared on ABC’s This Week to declare how he wants a debate in which “John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard,” and reporters began badgering the White House to prove McAuliffe’s charges false. But the hint of a GOP connection to the Swift Vets has reporters holding their noses. The first mention of the Swift Vets on NBC Nightly News came on August 6 when Andrea Mitchell complained the groups’ anti-Kerry “ad is paid for by Bush contributors using a loophole in the McCain- Feingold law.” Mitchell’s story did not examine the vets’ charges against Kerry, just complained about the fact that they could get them on TV.
• Evidence. Reporters put the onus on Bush to prove the critics wrong. “Given the absence of any witnesses who could fill in those gaps and corroborate the President’s recollection,“ ABC’s Terry Moran insisted on February 10, “the issue is not going to go away.” CBS was even more demanding (see box).
But holes in Kerry’s record aren’t treated as suspicious. On the issue of Kerry’s first wound in 1968, then-Coastal Division 14 Commander Grant Hibbard says Kerry came to his office asking for a Purple Heart for what amounted to a scratch. As recounted in Unfit for Command (page 38), “I told Kerry to ‘forget it.’ There was no hostile fire, the injury was self-inflicted for all I knew, besides it was nothing more than a scratch. Kerry wasn’t getting a Purple Heart recommendation from me.” But when the issue became news in April, the networks made it a one-day story, even though the records Kerry released failed to include the paperwork supporting the Purple Heart award.
• Enthusiasm. On February 10, White House reporters badgered Press Secretary Scott McClellan for 30 minutes, demanding detailed proof that everything Bush said in the past was true. But the networks now call the Swift Vets’ ad “ugly,” and reporters’ demand is for Bush to condemn it, not Kerry to factually rebut it.
And this is surprising BECAUSE??
That's what I said: hardly surprising.
Really!!!!
In fact, it's not even a consideration.
In fact, they would consider the very idea ridiculous. Their purpose is persuasion (i.e. propaganda), not truth.
It seems like it may be taking hold a little bit now. If this stays out there long enough on FOX and talk radio, let's just hope it will get big enough that the alphabets have no choice but than to discuss it.
One of the main jobs of Swift Boats on this river is to look for anything big enough floating down the river that it might have an explosive strapped to it.To make sure the VC hadn’t booby-trapped the debris in this awfully foul and muddy river we just shot it with the .50 cal machine gun.
It was not uncommon to see the carcass of an animal floating down the river and sometimes even people. We had to shoot those too, just to make sure they weren’t rigged into a mine.
Since it was Christmas we opened bottles of Coca-Cola and I unwrapped a gift that my mother had sent me. A pair of purple flip-flops, that moment was seared –seared- into my memory. I keep those flip-flops with me even to this day in a secret compartment in my black briefcase.
Later we were in Cambodia and our boat was carry a SEAL team and CIA agents. Marilyn Monroe was there for a while too, in fatigues, shooting an enemy aircraft with the twin guns. There were purple dinosaurs and pink donkeys running up and down the shoreline, they were VC and they were shooting at us with small caliber candy corn.
The muddy river was now chocolate and the trees had become lollipops and the crocodiles in the river were all smiling and cracking obscene jokes.
I think someone had managed to spike those Cola’s. The memories of those days are etched and seared, yes seared, into my mind. We were out there fighting sacks of rice, burning villages, shooting children in the back, and we had fun doing it.
I got a purple heart because of that piece of candy corn stuck under my fingernail. They even gave me a medal of honor after I had led the anti-war protests. Someone has been spiking my drinks all my life and when I am President, I might find out who has been doing it. I blame Nixon. I wake up at night screaming because of Nixon. I will order his arrest as President, I will have my revenge finally.
I will also my finger on the nuclear button, which should be fun. Yes, I can see it now. It will be seared –seared- into memory when I accidentally nuke Texas.
Many years ago my sister got a job to help her through college.... checking groceries...
In order to get this job she had to take a lie detector test...
Funny how jobs like Senator, Congressman, Supreme Court Justice, and POTUS candidates dont seem to need lie detector tests....
But grocery clerk check outs do.....
Gary Alridge warned this was coming..
And they still wonder why FNC is gaining viewers????
Funny how jobs like Senator, Congressman, Supreme Court Justice, and POTUS candidates dont seem to need lie detector tests....
Not sure they produce paper wide enough to record sKerry's richter mark on a lie detector test.
My distinct impression is the elite media simply do not believe the swift boat veterans against Kerry; they still believe Kerry is a genuine war hero.
I challange anyone to ask John O'Neill to see the supporting documentation behind Unfit for Command... investigate the allegations... apply 10% of the scuitiny they did to GWB's "AWOL" red herring.
If Big Media refuses, they are complicit in the biggest amercian conspiracy since Benedict Arnold. This time the traitor is running for president
Unfit for Command lays out the case. Read it - there's a big show coming...
The only other "genuine" war hero the current leftist media really knows is John McCain, and his hero status derives from being a POW. To them anyone who has a medal and can shoot a gun is a "war hero."
Kerry is toast. Time to start thinking about 2008.
That's what Hitlery is doing.
bookmark
A pathological liar like Kerry might very well pass a polygraph test. He undoubtedly believes what ever he is saying at the moment.
Regards,
GtG
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