Posted on 12/07/2007 8:39:54 AM PST by Interesting Times
FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Last week former President Bill Clinton, John Kerry and various members of the media once again used "Swift boating" as a shorthand reference for misrepresenting a candidate's record. In "To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry," authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler counter that assertion in a heavily researched 400 page work that provides the first historical assessment of the 2004 presidential campaign.
"To Set the Record Straight" is the definitive account of the ad hoc political movement that dominated the 2004 presidential campaign. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with key participants and two years of meticulous research, the book tells the inside story of how a group of Vietnam vets and their supporters delivered the explosive truth about John Kerry's military service and pro-Hanoi activism to the American public, despite relentless efforts by old media gatekeepers to silence and discredit them.
Swett said, "John Kerry lost all the key debates in 2004 to the anti-Kerry veterans. Since then, he has tried to paper over his failure with sloganeering and empty promises of new evidence." He added, "The 2004 campaign was a watershed in American political history, marking the first time that online forums and blogs were able to have a real impact on the national conversation. These new media outlets made it impossible for the liberal press to hide or dismiss what the veterans had to say."
The foreword for the book was written by John E. O'Neill, the lead spokesman for the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth in 2004. One chapter that underscores the impact of the new media on the campaign has been made available online at "ToSetTheRecordStraight.com". "Rather's Ruin and the Rise of the Pajamahadeen" tells how ordinary citizens with computers exposed the phony documents "60 Minutes" used to attack George Bush's National Guard service, effectively ending Dan Rather's career at CBS News.
"To Set the Record Straight" also contains:
o Conclusive evidence that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth acted independently, and were not a creation of the Bush campaign as their opponents repeatedly claimed.
o Detailed analysis of the efforts by the old media to blunt the impact of the anti-Kerry veterans by distorting and misrepresenting their charges
o Previously unpublished information on the "war crimes" propaganda effort that Kerry led during the Vietnam War, including material showing how the antiwar movement worked with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.
o New eyewitness perspectives on Kerry's "No Man Left Behind" engagement from a Forward Air Control pilot and the mission's Special Forces commander.
o The powerful story of a former member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who testified that Kerry personally pressured him to tell lies about military atrocities and war crimes at the group's 1971 "Winter Soldier" conference.
Ping.
Form 180?
The Swift Boaters DID set the record straight...this is just cashing in...
They couldn't hide it, but they did their darn best to try to dismiss it. Not that they are biased or anything....
Well he partially did, but only to one select member and good friend who would cover for him. Kerry's promise that everyone would soon see his records has yet to be met.
Whenever someone uses the term “swiftboating”, the true translation is “new media exposure of information censored by the old media”
I’m extremely impressed with your effort.
The MSM still believe, as do the dims, that if you tell a lie often enough, it will become the truth. The swiftboaters have proven this a wrong assumption. God bless them everyone of them.
John O'Neill doesn't think so, and I respect his opinion a great deal more than yours.
FRankly, I can’t wait for the day when Karl Rove finally has the common decency to admit that it was the Swift Boat veterans who were the architects of Kerry’s defeat, and not the little round man himself.
Thanks. If the leftist "swiftboating" meme isn't challenged, they'll gradually work it into the language, a la "McCarthyism."
It’s kind of a moot point 3 years after the fact.
Makes me proud to have been a part of “setting the record straight”......I’ve yet to see kerry attempt to collect the million dollars from Boone Pickens....
Just more evidence that Kerry heads the treason branch of the DNC. This branch seems to dominate the DNC. Kerry stands out as the most despicable among despicable for his treasoness activities.
Not really. Nobody has ever told the complete inside story of what happened in 2004, and it needs to be known.
My friend it is never a moot point when honorable Veterans honor is challanged....there is no time line...
Still fighting the Vietnam War.
New media is the Enemedia's biggest nightmare.
Infowar ping?
The 2004 anti-Kerry effort should be Exhibit A in how to do an effective end-run around the old media.
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