Sounds strangely similar to CNN reporting what Saddam wanted reported from Iraq! To get in and stay in, CNN spun the situation in Iraq to Saddam's liking! What side were they on?
I wonder about that. There is something EXTREMELY troubling in Koppel's closing remarks. He says that ABC was offered the chance ... see for yourself:
[closing thought]
Koppel: One of our own producers, this morning, raised a question that I suspect a number of you may have on your mind. Why, just when the Presidential candidates are starting to focus on real, substantive issues devote yet another program to what John Kerry did or didn't do in Vietnam?
Here's why. Questions have been raised about John Kerry's character and honesty. We were offered the chance to set the record straight on one, discreet chapter in Mr. Kerry's war record. We didn't know what we were going to find when our crew went into Vietnam. You have the right to expect that we would have reported it, either way. And we would. Because not reporting something you know can be just as much of a political statement as reporting it. Imagine how outraged supporters of Mr. Kerry would have been if we had concealed what we found!
Is ABC's Nightline acting simply as a transcript service for the People's Republic of Vietnam? Did the Vietnamese do the "heavy lifting" and find the "combatants," prep their story, and offer them up as a nice little package for Nightline? That is a world of difference from ABC independently sending out their staff to find these people and thereby find the truth rather than a Potemkin play.
source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1245808/posts?page=14#14. I'd link to ABC's site but I don't feel inclined to improve their traffic numbers.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if ABC never even left the country to go to Vietnam. It was probably all staged on a hollywood back lot somewhere with Micheal the lying Pig Moore directing it!