Posted on 09/23/2004 2:31:31 PM PDT by ambrose
September 23, 2004 at 12:13PM MST
NBC's Lisa Myers Reports
Kerry campaign says timing of 'Fortunate Son' ad campaign, 60 Minutes story a 'coincidence'
Having acknowledged that its own standards were violated, CBS News named an independent panel to investigate what went wrong: Former Republican Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired chief of the Associated Press Louis Boccardi.
The investigation focuses on the process that led to airing possibly fraudulent documents challenging the President's military service and why the CBS Producer put the source of those documents, longtime Bush critic Bill Burkett, in touch with the Kerry Campaign before the story aired.
Journalism expert Robert Steele says, "The producer in this case was already operating in an ethical minefield. She squirted gasoline on the explosives when she made that connection."
Republicans launched a frontal attack on CBS, accusing the network of "a serious lapse in judgment" beyond the initial report in not suspending producer Mary Mapes and apologizing only for the documents rather than retracting the story itself.
Republicans said the Kerry Campaign clearly knew something about the CBS Report before it aired.
Terry Holt of the Republican National Committee says, "We think they should come clean and answer the question, 'what information did you obtain and what did you intend to do with it?'"
The day before the CBS report, Democrats began a concerted attack on the President's National Guard record.
However, the Kerry Campaign insists it knew nothing about the CBS documents, claiming the timing was a coincidence.
I guess they think we're all stoopid. Well, the least we can do is repay the sentiment on Nov. 2nd!
Just a "coincidence" that Terry Mac used the term "sugar-coated" BEFORE the memos were "unveiled".
Rrrriiiggghhhtttt
I'm still waiting for Sandy Berger to be indicted.
You got me convinced.
It's Terrible Terry that screwed up by "sugarcoating" his press release.
I think they're sugar-coating things.
I think the entire MSM is sugar-coating things. I mean, NBC, the source of this piece has 25% ownership in the A&E Biography channel (ABC has 37.5%; Hearst the other 37.5%). And who did A&E/Biography have "Live" last night? John Fogarty of CCR, writer & performer of the original "Fortunate Son." The host referred to "Fortunate Son" being one of the greatest ever songs. That's called Democratic hype written by Kerry's scriptwriters. [I mean, it barely makes CCR's top dozen].
I suppose the NBC/ABC/Hearst folks are gonna tell us that having on Forgarty a few weeks after the inauguration of the Democrat "Fortunate Son" campaign was all coincidence. That's it's been in the works for years on end and it "just happened" to fall on the date of Sept. 22.
Yeah, and I've got some swamp land in Florida...[well, it's true, the entire state is now officially sanctioned swampland].
When did the A&E schedulers of their "Live Request" concerts know about the "Fortunate Son" Campaign and who told them? Why was "Fortunate Son" the peak--the crest of the show?
Why is John Fogarty's timing of coming out of the respite closet after 7 years matching the stretch run of the political campaign? Another coincidence?
We FREEPERS need to forward these questions to columnists & talk-show hosts to ensure that we don't give the broader MSM a free pass. Remember, the DNC has operatives and key contacts at every major media outlet. Remember, also that a campaign is not a compaign if all they are doing is putting out a video and referencing it on its web site & some talking head talking points.
A campaign includes infiltrating venues throughout the culture. Apparently, that's what Kerry officials have done.
When it comes to the MSM, it's FSC-R-Us.
My history teacher taught us that Stalin waited a few weeks after Hitler invaded Poland. You might want to check that.
The DNC has nicknamed its effort ''Operation Fortunate Son'' after a Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-war anthem from the 1960s. The song speaks of the privileged few, ''born silver spoon in hand,'' who send others to war. Bush is not the ''senator's son'' written about in the song, but he's the son of a former president who served in the House during the Vietnam War. Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes, a Kerry supporter, says he helped Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam.As a young lieutenant, Bush was ''talking to someone upstairs'' and trying to ''get out of coming to drill,'' according to newly unearthed memos by the late Col. Jerry B. Killian, squadron commander for Bush in Texas.
Democrats said the documents prove that Bush lied as president when he said that he did his Guard duty. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett accused Democrats of reading too much into the memos ''of a dead man,'' and said the bottom line is the president was honorably discharged.
''People formed their opinions of President Bush's service in the National Guard many years ago,'' Bartlett said. Indeed, the president's Guard service was a campaign issue in 2000 and had little, if any, effect on the results.
This time, Democrats are pressing media organizations to dig deeper while Kerry and his team make a broader argument about Bush's credibility and character.
http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2412211
One of the earliest I can find. Seems they had to have a pretty good heads-up on the memos.
A_R
But Hitler did declare war on the United States immediately after Pearl Harbor, resolving a dilemma for FDR.
There's an FR thread running right now highlighting that Terry McAwful started using the term "sugar-coat" before CBS aired the document that used it.
Coincidence?? No freakin' way.
Stalin waited a bit to see if the Germans would prevail. Once the Polish Army had been destroyed by the Nazis, the Red Army walked in to carve up the country, per the secret clauses of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of a few months previous. BTW, I'm amazed your history teacher even mentioned the Soviet partnership with the Nazis in starting WWII. Most of them ignore it.
I had better put this on here for archival sake. NRO has retracted its timeline on this. My cynicism was well founded.
this really suck. ccr is one of my favorites. the special on t.v. last night was fantastic. thank goodness they weren't blatant about fogarty's leanings.
Actually, the string that runs through his life is that Dad refused to intercede when he messed up, and left him to take his lumps. The DUI, the joining the TANG, the going to Harvard Business School...in each case he was left to go it alone.
Sugarcoatgate
The Kerry campaign has been floating the "Bush was AWOL", "Bush shirked his National Guard duty" stuff ever since the Michael Moore movie came out. Kerry himself mentioned it during an interview several months ago!!
PLEASE NOTE NRO HAS RETRACTED THE "TERRY-USED-SUGARCOAT" statement.
PLEASE DO NOT SPREAD THE MISTAKE.
This mistake will distract from the fact that the timing of the Fortunate Son campaign was as curious as Martha Stewart's dumping of her MClone stock.
You lost me here.
The fact that Burkett needed Mapes to get in contact with the Kerry campaign certainly suggests that they were holding him at arms length (remember that he had written that he couldn't penetrate the layers of kids when he tried to contact the campaign himself). I think CBS bought hook-line-and-sinker what the Kerry campaign itself wouldn't touch.
So you believe Burkett now, but castigate CBS for believing him a couple of weeks ago?
LA Times said it could be as much as $3.2 bil.
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