Posted on 09/29/2004 7:14:58 PM PDT by ironman
From this morning's Corrections section of the New York Times:
An article on Thursday about political advertising in the presidential campaign, including a commercial that accused John Kerry of having "secretly met with the enemy'' in Paris in the 1970's, misidentified the parties with whom Mr. Kerry said he had met at the Vietnam peace talks. (The error was repeated in articles on Friday and Saturday.) The parties were the two Communist delegations - North Vietnam and the Vietcong's Provisional Revolutionary Government - with whom he discussed the status of war prisoners. He did not say he had met with "both sides." (Go to Sept. 23 Article), (Go to Sept. 24 Article), (Go to Sept. 25 Article) Herein lies a tale. In 1970, John Kerry traveled to Paris and met with both of the two Communist delegations to the peace talks that were then going on in that city: the North Vietnamese delegation and the Viet Cong delegation. Many observers believed at the time that Kerry's back-door "diplomacy" on behalf of the far-left Vietnam Veterans Against the War helped undermine Henry Kissinger's bargaining position in his negotiations with the Communists.
Fast forward to 2004. John Kerry is now running for President as a war hero. The Swift Boat Vets ran a television ad that attacked Kerry's meetings with the Communists. The New York Times immediately sprang to Kerry's defense, purporting to supply context for the Vets' "unsubstantiated" allegations.
On September 23, the Times wrote:
In another broadside against Mr. Kerry, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose past accusations have frequently been unsubstantiated, says in a new commercial that Mr. Kerry went to Paris in the 1970's and "secretly met with the enemy.'' (Mr. Kerry testified shortly thereafter that he had met with both sides at the Vietnam peace talks to discuss the status of prisoners of war.) The Times repeated this claim the very next day, September 24:
Mr. Kerry's nemesis, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is spending $1.3 million in five swing states with a spot accusing him of meeting with the enemy in Paris - a reference to his trip to the Paris peace talks, where he met with both sides. And again, the following day:
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which drew national attention with advertisements making unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's military service, has less money and uses several strategies to stretch its dollars, said one of its leaders, John O'Neill. Many of the group's advertisements have drawn attacks from the Kerry campaign and others, attracting attention to the commercials, Mr. O'Neill said. Its latest advertisement claims Mr. Kerry traveled to Paris in the 1970's and "secretly met with enemy leaders." Mr. Kerry has said he visited the Vietnam peace talks and discussed the status of prisoners of war with both sides.
Notice that when the Times mentions the Swift Boat Vets, it usually makes a point of saying that their claims are "unsubstantiated." In the three instances cited above, the Times used the claim that Kerry had met with "both sides" in Paris to imply that the Vets' ad was false or unfair.
Only it wasn't. What the Vets said was true. Kerry didn't meet with "both sides," as the Times has now admitted; he met with both of the two Communist delegations. The Times misinformed its readers in order to defuse the impact of the Vets' ad and to promote Kerry's candidacy.
Why, exactly, does the Times (along with virtually every other mainstream media source) persist in repeating the mantra that the Vets' ads are "unsubstantiated"? What is "unsubstantiated" about footage of Kerry testifying before a Senate committee? What is "unsubstantiated" about the meetings with Communists in Paris, about which Kerry boasted in 1971? What is "unsubstantiated" about the ad in which Stephen Gardner says that Kerry's boat was never in Cambodia?
Given today's correction, do you suppose the Times will start referring to Kerry's responses to the Swift Boat Vets' ads as "unsubstantiated"?
FYI, kiddos.
Thanks for posting this, ironman!
Thanks for posting this, ironman!
I am waiting for the Press conference that must come about where there will be some conservative reporters that will ask him the hard questions... He can't hide from his past forever and America will know the Truth... I can only hope it is before the election.
Nice post, ironman. More documentation of the lies of the Times. Soon to be a major motion picture.
Only on the days the sun comes up in the west.
BTTT
If I were a parent with a kid wanting to go to "J School", I'd buy them Pajams instead of funding their edcation. That way, they'd be better reporters than J School grads.
In the NYT mode of thinking, was CBS/Rathergate a case of unsubstantiation? I'll bet the Times stood firmly behind the false documents as long as they could and never apologized for doing so even when it became obvious that the documents were false. That was a true failure in ethics and substantiation! The NYT and the MSM are scum!
Does anybody think the NYT will ever quit lying for RATs??
COMPLAIN TO NEW YORK TIMES AT
PUBLIC@NYTIMES.COM
Maybe he meant the VC and the Khmer Rouge. LOL
I wondered about this because Kerry openly hated our allies in South Vietnam even more than he hates freedom for Iraq. They are also saying he happened to be on his honeymoon in Paris at the time. IN FACT he was on the other side of the World and cut his honeymoon short to meet with our communist enemies and help them use the POWS to get the USA to withdraw from SouthEast Asia.
And by the way, despite characterizations of what he talked to the communist butchers about, Kerry has always lied that it was all a "blur" and claimed he doesn't remember what he discussed. Because his friendly conversations with our enemies as they killed his "bands of brothers" would not have served Kerry well even in Massachussetts.
Why would anybody believe otherwise? He not only undermined Henry Kissinger's position, but also now carries the blood of thousands of US military and over a million South Vietnamese military and civilians on his hands.
I find the "Times" to be on the level of Can't be Substantiated(CBS).
Am I the only one who has noticed that all these leftist[communist] outlets are all 50 years old or older.
Was McCarthy wrong? Or was he so right that it will blow your mind?
Rather should be in the Smithsonian, the Times goes back to horse and buggy. That is why FOX is doing so well. They are a modern News outlet for modern times.
does anyone else wonder whether kerry knew in advance (in 1971) that POW's would be retained by the N Vietnamese as insurance that America would actually withdraw and for payment for the war "reparations" that were never paid?
Is it possible that he would have conspired in even this lowly way with "both sides"?
And if so - would this explain the heavy-handed less-than-honest way he acted as Chairman of the Select Committee on POW's?
I do not believe that this guys character would prevent it.
The New York Times' reporting is "unsubstantiated."
Not fooled...
intended to fool...
potential voters.
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