Posted on 08/22/2004 3:23:58 PM PDT by billorites
Some people wondered how long the major media would be willing to ignore the Christmas-in-Cambodia story. Well, the answer is in: at least 10 or 11 days. I first noticed the story August 6 on Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit blog. Soon it was all over the Internet, the conservative press, talk radio, and some cable shows. But the networks, the New York Time s , the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and other major media didn't run the story. Some papers, like the Kansas City Star, got protests from readers on what appeared to be a news blackout. Finally, after an agonizingly slow response from the Kerry campaign, big media took account of the issue, muffling and burying the story they didn't want to carry in the first place.
The story is simple and by now well known. For 25 years John Kerry has said repeatedly that on Christmas or Christmas Eve of 1968 he took his swift boat into Cambodia on a covert and illegal mission. He said he got shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians or by "our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas." In 1979, Kerry wrote a piece for the Boston Herald noting that "the absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real." Kerry was wrong about Nixon, who was not yet president at the time--a minor and unimportant slip--but he said the memory of the Cambodian Christmas "is seared--seared into me."
The anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth book, Unfit for Command, argued that Kerry had never been in Cambodia. That charge was easily challenged as partisan. But a book supportive of Kerry and written with his help, Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, said Kerry was on patrol 50 miles from the Cambodia border on Christmas Eve 1968 and spent Christmas Day writing journal entries back at his base. As the Washington Times argued in an editorial, all living commanders in Kerry's chain of command denied that Kerry had been in Cambodia, and three of Kerry's swift boat crew denied they or their boat had been in Cambodia during Christmas 1968. Two others refused comment.
Like the issue of President Bush's National Guard service, the Cambodian Christmas story is important only for the light it may shed on a candidate's mind and character. But unlike the Bush story, Kerry's Cambodian story set off no media frenzy. Glenn Reynolds wrote of the big media: "They're damaging themselves as more and more people notice that they're ignoring it." Boston Globe reporter Anne Kornblut was asked to comment on the Cambodian Christmas story on Meet the Press. She blew off the question, possibly because her paper hadn't yet bothered to report the story.
Borderline. When the Los Angeles Times finally decided to notice the story, it had an obvious problem: How should it report news it had ignored for 11 days? Simple: Lump it in with Kerry's other Vietnam controversies in a long, boring, and indecisive report ("what actually happened about 35 years ago along the remote southern coast of Vietnam remains murky" ). And high up in the story, let readers know that the Times thinks the issue is old, irrelevant, and narrowly partisan ("the [anti-Kerry] ad, the book, and the people behind them have become staples of conservative talk shows and Internet sites" ). Of course, one reason it was a "staple" of conservative media is that the major news media ignored it. The Times did come up with one nugget of information: An archived Navy report said Kerry's boat destroyed a junk on a beach on Christmas Eve. A coordinate used by the military fixed the site at 40 to 50 miles south of the Cambodian border. This information seemed damaging to Kerry, but the Times helpfully pointed out that the junk incident occurred so early in the day (7 a.m.) that Kerry had plenty of time to take his boat over the Cambodian border before nightfall. Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan offered a slightly different explanation--Kerry was on or near the Cambodian border on Christmas. This seems like a smooth way of withdrawing the Christmas-in-Cambodia claim.
This is odd. Previously, Kerry was very specific--it was definitely Christmas or Christmas Eve and he was 5 miles inside Cambodia, not at or near the border. The event was "seared" into his memory. Perhaps Kerry is vague because he was on a secret mission, but if it was so secret, why did he spend 25 years talking about it? Perhaps the Christmas in Cambodia was just a self-dramatizing touch that Kerry made up and never expected to get called on. He has said he was heading upriver like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now. An interesting story. It isn't too late for a big-time media outlet to grow curious about it.
A good post from you! Wow.
Let's see how many news shows book John Leo.
BTTT 4 truth...............
The cool morning mist settled over the Cambodian border. The engine hummed, moving the swift boat slowly through the mined river. They weren't supposed to be here. It wasn't supposed to be this way. An illegal war conducted by President Nixon. It didn't make sense. Everything about this mission was wrong.
Lt. Kerry's mission was an impossible one. Find and silence Colonel Kurtz. Why had Colonel Kurtz fled to Cambodia? What madness had driven him to this? And why had they chosen him?
It didn't matter now. Now he had to find Colonel Kurtz. He had to silence this loose cannon. Something had to be done. Was he the man to do it? He didn't know. The personal demons had haunted him for far too long. He wanted to be patriotic. He needed to be patriotic. But a political career lay in wait for him back in the States.
Suddenly, the swift boat left the air from the thrust of the mine. Lt. Kerry didn't hestitate. He didn't second guess. He floored the throttle in retreat, hearing a scream from the stern. He looked back to see Jim Rassman in the water.
Could he leave him? Jim was just along for the ride. A ride taking them deep into the Cambodian jungle in search of a madman. The second passed, but Lt. Kerry knew he could leave no man behind.
The fifty caliber machine gun fire barked loudly from the shoreline. Then, he remembered it. He reached in his duffle bag at his side and pulled out his 8mm camera. He jerked the steering, turning the boat around and yelling, "Let's go boys. We're only gonna have one take at this!"
:) HA!
Oh my god. Finally. I never thought I would see it happen.
Big media actually questioning the veractiy of John F. Kerry.
Want to join in the fun? Click the logo to donate to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth!
I still get pounded by my Los Angeles friends that in no way is the LA TIMES biased....Frickin Hilarious huh?
To my shock, George Stephanopoulos said this morning that Christmas-in-Cambodia had already been proven to be a lie.
Those wascally ARVN's and Khmer Rouge had the audacity to shoot at my boat on Christmas Eve. The horror.
Georgie said that?
It was all in the name of "No man left behind." How dare they shoot at him!
Suppose Mr Kerry could produce a few of the people that he took on his "SECRET MISSION" into Cambodia, whether it be on Christmas eve or Christmas day or in January or February or??????? At least one of these folks that were being secretly taken into Cambodia should remember the trip also.
On Meet the Press, Levine reassurted that Kerry definitely went 5 miles into Cambodia but in the panic of war, may have got the dates wrong. One of the people being ferried into Cambodia sure should come forward and claim their 15 minutes of fame.
.
Christmas 4-Real in Vietnam
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set2.htm
(See last Photo)
Christmas 4-Real in America
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
(See Photo)
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
'MODERN DAY HEROES' - Contributing Author
http://www.ModernDayHeroes.com/aloha
20-Year SANTA CLAUS...
...just 4-The LOVE of it..!!!!
.
Yep! They showed a shot of his side as he was looking in his laptop and O'Neill and John Podesta were still talking. Was I the only one that heard it?
I was working when he was on ......and didn't watch it ....was just asking.
According to Unfit for Command, Kerry really spent Christmas trying to find the Bob Hope Christmas USO show at the Dong Tam base and got lost.
He put his crew in danger by "blundering into one of the most dangerous canals in Vietnam, a canal that to those who knew the area was notiorious for Viet Cong ambushes."
Kind of off subject, but has everybody here seen that cute animation of Kerry and Bush, if not, please got to URL:
http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/this_land and click on "This Land". Its a hoot!
It had to have been February or March. On Fox today, John Hurley said that kerry was on PCF-94 at the time. He didn't take over PCF-94 until the last day or two of January.
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.