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Posted on 09/02/2004 6:24:11 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
OPINION -- There was something almost quaint about the Chicago Tribune’s editorial assertion August 24 declaring that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth controversy surrounding John Kerry’s war record was over.
Forgetting that we are in the midst of a “new media” revolution that allows everyday Americans to investigate truth claims on their own - without the clouded filter of biased journalists - the Tribune editors wrote, “That should be the end of the debate about John Kerry's experience in Vietnam.”
Days before, the Tribune had injected itself prominently into the presidential campaign and the Swift Boat controversy by giving front-page play to the printed recollections of Metro editor Bill Rood, who served with Kerry and challenged the SBVT’s contentions surrounding the incident that led to Kerry’s Silver Star.
The Trib’s Rood story was splashed all over the national media yet, conveniently, Mr. Rood did not take questions about his testimony. That left Tribune deputy managing editor George De Lama to do interviews with a mostly compliant media.
“[Rood] felt compelled to set the historical record straight, which is what we do as journalists when we're at our best,” De Lama told MSNBC’s Scarborough Country.
One question I doubt Mr. De Lama was asked is this: Why isn’t the Tribune using its substantial investigative resources to fully set the record straight on the many questions surrounding John Kerry’s Vietnam service? (For a good summary of the Swifties’ concerns, see their letter to John Kerry on their website: www.swiftvets.com.)
It’s that old media double standard we know so well (and hate): The same reporters who seriously pursued the George Bush-AWOL-from-the-National Guard story-after being spurred on by Democrat National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe - are almost reverential about John Kerry’s Vietnam War claims. The media often sound like the DNC echo chamber in dismissing the Swift Vets story.
The great news is the media’s glaring double standard just doesn’t matter as much anymore. Thanks to the Internet and hugely popular conservative talk shows like the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity shows, politically incorrect books like John O’Neil and Jerome Corsi’s Unfit for Command now receive the serious treatment and exposure they deserve - rather than being relegated to cultural no man’s land as in the past.
Gone are the days when liberal bookstores and snobby book reviewers can snuff out conservative books and stories they don’t like. Now we, the people, are free to decide for ourselves what’s newsworthy - and it’s scaring the wits out of hard-core liberals, as evidenced by their escalating harangues against Fox News.
The democratization of the news and information business has substantially lessened the power of major media - and hence their ability to abuse that power through unbalanced, cynical reporting.
For all the Left’s lectures about censorship, it is committed liberals who are the knee-jerk censors - and those in the media do most of their work by selective reporting. Perhaps some young readers are simply unaware of the incredible power the liberal media once had to control the news, and hence the political, agenda.
Now, due to the explosive growth of alternative media sources - from Web bloggers to popular talk shows - big media corporations like the Tribune, New York Times and CBS can no longer dictate "what is news" on major controversies. (Ask yourself: who’s more powerful, Dan Rather or Rush Limbaugh?) Of course, they still have tremendous power to skew the debate.
But back to the Tribune, which gets too much credit in media circles for being “impartial.” (I sure don’t see it on social issues.) I emailed their senior news executives and asked, “Given the special role the Tribune has played in discrediting one part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's allegations, aren't you ethically bound to devote the Tribune's full investigative resources to probing the rest of their claims?”
I received a nice note back from national editor Bob Rowley, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for the Trib to expose Kerry’s falsified war claims.
Strangely, the same newspaper that sued to dig up Blair Hull and Jack Ryan’s divorce papers can’t muster up the will to pressure Kerry to execute Standard Form 180, which, according to Unfit for Command, would “allow the public to have complete access to his military service record.” This is one way to evaluate the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s allegations.
Never mind that the Tribune joined the rest of the media in pursuing the Bush-AWOL story. Never mind that the Trib’s review gave four stars to Michael Moore’s deceitful propaganda film Fahrenheit 911. (For an excellent critique of this film, see Dave Kopel’s “59 Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11,” at http://www.davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm). The Tribune, like the rest of the old elite media, and like Kerry, just want to move on to “real issues,” as they say.
Well, the Swift Vets story is about real issues, because it cuts straight to the character of one John Kerry, who - as most Americans know now thanks to the new media - told some left-wing whoppers about America’s fighting men when he returned from Vietnam.
Oddly, today’s journalists, who seem to view everything in political terms, have a hard time with the notion of defending the truth. That’s why they invariably portray the Swift Vets for Truth as a political operation, whereas the sense I get of these 200-plus men is they just want to set the record straight about this man from Massachusetts whom they regard as an opportunist and a liar who dishonored his country.
Of course it matters a great deal if one of the men running for Commander in Chief lied repeatedly about his past - and about our nation in a time of war. But if the Trib doesn’t want to get to the bottom of the story, rest assured that others - be they talk show hosts or a Web bloggers - will. The smart move, if Tribune execs want to stay relevant, is to fully probe the rest of the Swift Vets’ claims.
For now, though, let us rejoice as conservatives in this truth: The liberal media monopoly is dead! Long live the new media!
it's not over by a long shot!
love it!
ratmedia wishful thinking.
It is a web-o-lution!
Nice article.
But it still underestimates the power of the liberal propaganda artists. They don't have the complete monopoly on the news they used to have, but they still are the major source for millions of voters who are politically unsophisticated.
"Ask yourself: who’s more powerful, Dan Rather or Rush Limbaugh?)" I'm sorry to say that the answer is Dan Rather. He may be a lying jerk, but he still reaches a lot more people than Rush does.
Can I qoute Macellus Wallace on behalf of the Swifties!
"I ain't through with you by a D@MN sight."
Wrong.
The tide has turned. That's why chrissie mathews went off the deep end.
The new media (here) is killing the old media. Buggy whip old media folks are going to go even more nutso.
But nobody will hear them.
Not for much longer, CBS news, like the other two, have older demographics (those people who grew up watching the big three because there were only three), the younger generations are no longer watching Walter Cronkite every evening. Their prominence is fading.
And that's the way it is.
Nice thing is, here in Blue America...but that may change...as the Bush Prairie Fire grows,,,the new media can have a great outpost of truth called the Illinois Leader.
True. My dear old dad is a solid Republican, but I can't wean him of Danny Blather or the local liberal rag. I buy him all the popular conservative books that point out liberal bias in the MSM, but like a child he can't give up that comfort blanket even though it's tattered and stinks to high heaven.
Buy your Dad a computer with internet and put freerepublic on his favorites. He'ss be addicted in a week
The Trib, like the other liberal MSM outlets, still thinks it has the power and relevance to ignore and/or obscure stories it doesn't like. Unfortunately for them, we can all endrun around them on sites like this, and talk radio. If they won't do their job, we will do it for them, dragging them reluctantly along after the fact. Sure, there is no editorial fact checking, but then, how much is there at papers like the Trib? Having to do our own fact checking makes us savvier readers, and unwilling to accept any story at face value. We don't have to, as the net allows us to do extraordinary research from the comfort of our homes.
Additionally, these sorts of forums give everybody the opportunity to speak out, not just the four or five letters the Trib and other papers deign to print, usually long after readers have forgotten the original article.
That brings up another point: spontaniety. No more waiting for a 10 second mention on the news (if that), or an article buried near the obits five days after the event occured. The web is vitually instantaneous. We are so far ahead of the regular media, we ought to rename it "snail news."
The web can reach anyone with access to a computer, fully interactive as one wishes.
The bottom line is that we are dealing with "open source news" if you will, which, like Linux, benefits from the efforts of people in numbers orders of magnitude above that employed by the MSM. A prime example is the Swiftvets site (www.swiftvets.com), where knowledgeable men and women add bits and pieces of knowledge, experience and access to information to quickly vet and get a story out. The MSM is a lumbering clod in comparison, and as their irrelevance increases, they will become increasingly shrill and partisan, further causing people to abandon them for the internet. It is happening now. Remember that you witnessed aided and abetted the downfall of the media equivalent buggywhip industry.
Did that last month. Waiting to see results...;^)
Do SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Do what Reagan did - GO AROUND THEM AND GO DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!
Get your own "EXPOSE KERRY'S FRAUD SWIFT BOAT VETERANS FOR TRUTH" STICKER!
I put this sticker on my truck the other day. I get lots of honks and 'thumbs up'!
The sticker serves 3 purposes:
1 - Shows visible support for "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth" to passing motorists, (encourages our side discourages the libs).
2 - Gets the swiftvets.com website visible to the public, so they can and find out more about 'Hanoi John' Kerry.
3 - Circumvents the lamestream media BIAS filter!
Swiftee window sticker thread - get yours! Freep mail for details.
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