Posted on 10/20/2004 12:48:22 PM PDT by 84rules
October 20, 2004 Mr. Leonard Downie, Jr., Executive Editor Mr. Michael Getler, Ombudsman The Washington Post
“The story is a legend now, but it really did happen.” So begins page one of The News About The News: American Journalism in Peril, the book co-authored (with Post colleague Robert Kaiser, 2002) by Leonard Downie, Jr., an omnibus review of the condition of American news media.
The legend referred to is Watergate. Mr. Downie reminisces about the unfolding of the Watergate saga—he had a ringside seat as the direct supervisor of Woodward and Bernstein at the time--and the Post’s role in driving the story into the national limelight. Downie’s walk down memory lane wraps with, “Watergate became an example for the ages, a classic case when journalism made a difference.”
An example for the ages. Yes it was. That was then, and this is now and the Washington Post has recently strayed a long, long way from that example.
Look at this exchange from a 10/6/04 Washington Post transcript of “Live Online”, where Post readers submit email questions for Post staffers who then respond. This particular Wednesday featured none other than, Leonard Downie, Jr.
(a reader from) Washington, D.C.: You were recently quoted in Editor and Publisher as saying the following: “We are not judging the credibility of Kerry or the (Swift Boat) Veterans, we just print the facts.”
Is this a misquote? If not, do you really believe it the job of a journalist to verify the credibility of a source prior to printing a story? How can facts be determined without reviewing the credibililty of the source? I thought checking your source was the first rule of journalism? I find this statement (the E&P quote) astonishing and I hope you take this opportunity to correct the record.
Leonard Downie Jr.: There is a difference between judging and giving readers all the facts. We have thoroughly investigated and analyzed the claims on both sides and presented them to our readers in very lengthy, detailed stories (which you can find on washingtonpost.com) and then let our readers do the judging.
Ah. In the same Q&A session, Mr. Downie describes his role as “ultimate gatekeeper for what is published in the newspaper”. Mr. Downie also talks about being scrupulously non-partisan or ideological. Case in point, never participates in any political events, won’t even vote in any elections. Post reporters may go ahead and vote, but that’s about it. No other perceptible political behavior. Bottom line, Mr. Downie won’t tolerate reporters’ personal politics magnetizing any viewpoints in his news pages. Len Downie, meet Joe Friday. Just the facts, ma’am.
“We have thoroughly investigated and analyzed the claims on both sides and presented them to our readers in very lengthy, detailed stories . . . .”. This is executive hubris on the scale of Kenneth Lay saying he was above it all and didn’t have a clue about the financial stealth going on at Enron.
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth first read their manifesto against John Kerry, under a formal national spotlight, on May 4, 2004. Over three months went by when the Post pretended they were just—not—there. An imaginary bete noire. A large and politically diverse group of distinguished and decorated Navy war veterans, and the Washington Post, that lion of Watergate, still wearing those wilted laurels on its corporate pate,. . . .totally ignored them.
Imagine Woodward and Bernstein giving the ice-cold shoulder to Deep Throat. Or more accurately, dozens of Deep Throats, all with solid bona fides and very, very troubling affidavits to supply. Ding-dong, nobody home. Will that also stand as a Washington Post example for the ages, sirs?
Recall those halcyon days and the Post’s outrage about Rosemary Woods (of Watergate fame) and the notorious 18 ½ minutes of ‘accidentally’ erased Nixon Oval Office tape? You might say what goes around, comes around, because your own “Rosemary Woods moment” was the Post’s repeated declination of invitations to interview the SBVT group and thoroughly analyze. . .those are your words. . .their official statements. How in the name of God is that not your job, on something of this national gravity, at this time? But you effectively pushed the “erase” button when you decided that, truth or not, it was potentially far too damaging—even ruinous—to John Kerry’s claim to moral fitness. There isn’t anybody left in America with an intellect and objective mind that doesn’t suspect that constructive censorship is what you tried to pull off. Is that relatively less or more harmful and disgraceful, than what Rosemary Woods did?
But the SBVT didn’t melt away with the dawn like the bear under the bed, they hung tough. Tougher than tough. Just like you might expect from men of that character and honor. The Post finally broke radio silence on August 12 with an editorial jab titled, “Swift Boat Smears”. Let us zoom out slightly to understand that significance. Unfit for Command, the SBVT book, had been released and was in your hands at that time. In fact, only the previous day Tony Blankley of the Washington Times commented at length about the book in an op-ed. Blankley wrote, “The book appears to be meticulously researched and reported. It is replete with copious footnotes, a detailed index and two appendices.” And: “The book has the ring of sincerity to it, and the mark of careful research and writing.” Whether they agree with his viewpoints or not, most people would grant that Tony Blankley is a very intelligent and conscientious journalist. So you could safely take it on faith, that this was at minimum, a very serious book indeed, easily qualified for and worthy of the effort of checking out in some depth.
Yet Mr. Downie decided to go with “Smears.” I would point to that as a window on the true soul of the Post in these times of widening retreat from journalistic responsibility and integrity. It is far more evocative of Rathergate, than Watergate.
The Post fired again on 8/20 with a front page story titled, “Records Counter a Critic of Kerry”. Finally, on Sunday 8/22, came a long Michael Dobbs front page story “Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete”, along with a detailed diagram of the Bay Hap River (Rassmann) incident which the Post reconstructed from its investigation. Given the lens of the Post’s previously hostile treatment of the Swift vets, it is fairly easy to spot the agenda of the paper in the story; it extends the benefit of the doubt to Kerry, almost across the board. Still, it was by far the best attempt by the Post to do some actual investigation and analysis.
There are four key takeaways from this one lonely example of Watergate-style investigative reporting by the Post on the Swift vets story. (1) The Post seemed to dissect this single count, out of the overall indictment against Kerry, to serve as the proxy for all charges by the Swift vets. So: explode one, that explodes them all. If that’s the intent, it’s a foray into devious inductive reasoning. (2) Despite the detail contained in the story, the subheading of the article telegraphs the conclusion reached by the Post: “Critics Fail to Disprove Kerry's Version of Vietnam War Episode”. If you were hoping the topmost line of this overdue article signaled the possibility of Post balance for the first time, the butcher’s thumb went right back on the scale one carriage return later. (3) Michael Dobbs justified the Post interpretation reflected in the subheading, by observing at various spots in the body of the story, that “Navy records” definitively support the Kerry version with details of his bravado under intense and sustained enemy fire, that earned him a Bronze Star and a third Purple Heart. (4) Mr. Dobbs concedes that some open questions do remain, and sums it up with the advice, “Stay tuned.”
Points #3 and #4 are especially instructive in reaching our own verdict about whether this is still the Watergate Washington Post or some dissolute and hard-to-recognize remnant. In the two months that have passed since this “stay tuned” alert by Mr. Dobbs, almost everyone has done just that. There has been a storm of discussion about Unfit for Command, and this “meticulously researched and reported” (Blankley comment) book rapidly became a #1 national bestseller. Literally mortified by this, everywhere the Kerry guard have chanted (point of yelling) Dobbs’ 8/22 finding: “Navy records. . .Navy records” support Kerry. Forget that no one of stature across the whole land has summoned the will to mount any worthy challenge to the direct, documented scholarly case laid out in Unfit for Command. Did you get that, editor? The charges still stand unrefuted. Hissed at, mocked, cursed, spit on. . . . unrefuted.
But “Navy records” support Kerry! The mantra became the ultimate armored skin of the Kerry hero myth guardians, in spite of all other defenses and assertions inexorably crumbling around them. If only Custer had such “Navy records” to clutch like magical relics of faith, he might have died of old age, no matter how many Indians were coming up the hill.
On 10/1, the Chicago Sun-Times published a front page story titled, “Did Kerry Write Own Report of Disputed Clash?”, written by Thomas Lipscomb, a veteran reporter with excellent credentials. The story hinged on current intensive and expert analysis (including assistance from a senior Navy communications intelligence technician familiar with the case) of the after-action report on the Bay Hap River incident, as contemporaneously filed with the U.S. Navy. The analysis is that John Kerry. . .doing a fair imitation of Louis L’Amour. . .wrote that report. Remember, this is the key source document in the “Navy records”. So the Navy is not an Olympian god that writes only pure-truth reports on stone tablets. Mere mortals write those reports. Now, which mortal or mortals, that is the key question. Suddenly it seems all but certain that an unusually grasping mortal named Kerry wrote that critical Bay Hap report, and in so doing, created the virtual reality from which all else has flowed in terms of “Navy records”. Well, bust my scuppers, this is what the Swift vets have been saying right along. Imagine that. Mr. editor, sir. And further the Swift vets say that Kerry fictions pollute several other key elements in his Vietnam service record as well. High time (long overdue) for the benefit of the doubt rule to operate.
We had stayed tuned for Michael Dobbs, but alas, no Woodward or Bernstein he. It is apparent that Michael Dobbs, has turned in his gold detective shield. There simply will be no more incisive reporting on the charges in Unfit for Command. Does anyone actually believe it’s because there is not enough substance there, or it doesn’t/shouldn’t count even if true? Does anyone actually, really believe that? You do? O tempore, O mores. I worry for my sons, and for America.
With or without Mr. Dobbs, if those “Navy records” melt down, what shield will remain? What conceivable explanation will the Post have for suppressing—like a Rosemary Woods encore—an absolutely crucially important story?
One of the other leitmotifs of the Kerry side has been, “it all happened long ago”. For them this means it has faded into near-insignificance in terms of revealing anything useful about the character and fitness of John F. Kerry as a potential holder of the baton as America’s Commander in Chief in wartime no less. If that is so, then why don’t we just yank Charles Manson out of the cooler and stand him up for election? After all, 1969 was way back there too, and the sins of Manson’s reckless youth should not be imputed to the mature adult. He has ‘moved on’, and we should ‘move one’ to more pressing matters as well. Uh, somewhat problematically, Mr. Manson has shown a few suggestions of a tendency toward incorrigibility over the years—notably a near total lack of remorse or apology—but nobody’s perfect. Foibles are foibles. It would be unfair to try to connect any dots between 1969 and now.
Reminder: here is (inter alia) what the SBVT charge that John Kerry may be guilty of:
(i) falsifying contemporaneous military combat records and/or testifying falsely to cause an undeserved medal or medals to be issued; (ii) abandoning a combat command by fraudulently petitioning for special evacuation by reason of fictionalized “battle” wounds; (iii) covertly meeting with high-level officials of the enemy’s government in wartime while still a commissioned officer under oath of service, (iv) lying to Congress (series of instances over a period of 25 years); (v ) tampering with and retrospectively altering official military records for personal accreditation, via willful serious misuse of the power and influence of his high government office; and (vi) providing intentionally misleading and incomplete information concerning existing adverse military records that might otherwise prove disqualifying for high public office.
Now it gets clearer with Mr. Downie’s silence every passing day the Post does not think this kind of stuff rises to the level of concern for the moral fitness of a president. So I guess that means we are left without a clue as to your now legendary former vendetta against poor Richard Nixon. You just fly off the handle now and then. Overreact, maybe.
It doesn’t take a genius, just an average person who pays attention to your motion, to see the new course the Post is steering. There has been not a word in your pages about the now-established probability that Kerry grossly distorted a combat record to get himself some glory and a couple of medals; or about the real possibility that Kerry retroactively altered his service record upon reaching the U.S. Senate; or that Kerry may be hiding the fact of a less-than-honorable discharge. But here’s the real point: the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth look more and more, as each issue is tested and vetted, like the side that is telling the truth. In that dawning light it is simply outrageous that these honorable veterans have been consistently, emphatically, and unfairly dismissed and demeaned by mainstream media outlets, the Post’s pages most prominently among them.
In the waning moments of the campaign, with almost no time left to tell the American electorate what they vitally need to know, are so deeply entitled to know, about the really dark side of John Kerry, about the fact that after all, the Swift vets are very conceivably telling the truth, and Kerry is lying. . . .the Washington Post has utterly defaulted its public trust. Instead of covering what any rational person who cares about American security knows is the real story, all kinds of space is granted to articles and columns about Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, the George Butler film. (Post articles: “Upriver: Kerry In Command”, 10/1; “Going Upriver: Kerry At His Deepest”, 10/1; and “A Focused Friend: Years Ago, ‘Upriver’ Filmmaker George Butler Trained His Camera on John Kerry”, 10/2). Butler, the long aspiring filmmaker who holds the all-time record for Kerry sycophancy in terms of time on the job and devotion to duty. Decades. He desperately needs more hobbies.
Can it be possible that these Post writers (above stories) actually don’t know the farce behind this film. . . that George Butler had to scramble to extensively re-edit his supposedly final cut, when Unfit for Command abruptly appeared and instantly blew huge embarrassing holes in his screenplay’s authenticity? Even after that was done, and Going Upriver was ostensibly now in ready-for-prime-time shape, another glitch. Now at the last possible moment before Broadway, one minute to curtain, it’s discovered that one of the most moving scenes, featuring Our Hero interviewing a typical anguished atrocity-witness Vietnam soldier named Steve Pitkin. . . .has been faked! Pitkin has filed a sworn affidavit saying he was coerced and coached, including by John Kerry, when they knew he had neither seen nor participated in any U.S. atrocities. Because he told them he hadn’t, and objected to the script, but it was “air time”, lights and cameras and live audience waiting in that gritty Detroit hotel meeting room, just get up there and lie your a** off or don’t expect a ride back to Baltimore.
Contrast this dedicated artist/truth merchant Steven Butler, with Carlton Sherwood, a genuine (Pulitzer-winning) journalist and (legitimately) decorated Marine Vietnam veteran. His documentary Stolen Honor:Wounds That Never Heal gets from the Post. . . not an actual thoughtful review of course. . . .but the following generous reception: veiled aspersions that it amounts to a politically motivated attack piece, accuracy dubious, and with spidery ties to Republican funding sources. Remember the New York Times front page ‘wiring diagram’ of the ‘secret origins’ of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? Your tack is very familiar. Just as dimwitted.
There ought to be clowns. Send in the clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here. And you are among them I’m afraid. For confirmation go back and re-read your own stories and columns pertaining to the two films. Force yourself into a state of decency, and look at the ledger. There is only one real conclusion. But I warrant you won't reach it.
Bad journalism—failing to report important news, or reporting news shallowly, inaccurately or unfairly—can leave people dangerously uninformed. If that sentence sounds plagiarized—you’re right. It’s verbatim, Downie and Kaiser, The News About The News: American Journalism in Peril, page 6.
More: “Journalists have a special role in preserving one of America’s greatest assets, our culture of accountability.” . . . “Accountability is a crucial aspect of our national ideology, which was based on the rejection of tyranny, defined by the founders as the unjust use of power.”
I am one of many who feel that this time, what the Washington Post has done by initially totally ignoring, and then so obviously underinvestigating and reporting to the American people on the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth charges, goes beyond mere abuse of your massive power of communication and influence. You are actually trying to employ that power to steer an election, when you are in an excellent position to know that your candidate may well and truly be, Unfit for Command. You did say (paraphrasing) ‘strenuously politically neutral’, did you not, Mr. Downie?
And finally (from Downie and Kaiser book): “Anyone tempted to abuse power looks over his or her shoulder to see if someone else is watching. Ideally, there should be a reporter in the rearview mirror.”
Sauce for the gander, Mr. Downie, let’s turn that around, so that it applies to you and the Post. Owing to your deliberate investigative failures and persistent bias on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth story, the Post’s Watergate days have slipped around the bend and are back there out of sight now. Instead, there are a lot of Americans, come what may on Nov. 2, that will be looming in your rear view mirror, and hopefully hanging in there like the marvelous Swift Vets have shown us how to do. Appalled by, and opposed to what you did. Genuinely alarmed about what that tells us you might do next with that power you have, what you're capable of, who knows when or what the stakes might be then. You might call it, an example for the ages. Goodbye Watergate. Hello, Swift Vets.
And caution—objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.
Jeff Carrington, veteran West Simsbury, CT
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bump...
A gift to us from the colleges and universities. A whole generation of mentally-retarded journalists.
Oh, my. That's gonna leave a mark. Or would/will, in any kind of a just world.
Ping; you'll like this.
BTTT
BTTT
Tonk, there's gotta be a Swiftie pinglist by now, who is the keeper?
"Tonk, there's gotta be a Swiftie pinglist by now, who is the keeper?"
I have no idea.
I agree. This is a stunning article. 'Pod.
BTTT
Fantastic! You mean it wasn't written by a "real" journalist? A VET wrote it?!
Our vets, their sons and daughters, relatives of the fallen and those who serve today are directly impacted by this shoddy journalism. This is relevent for today, and it's the biggest story of this campaign so far -- unreported.
If Americans were living up to their responsibility as good citizens, they'd raise the roof.
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