Human Events Exclusive: DEMS' SCARE TACTICS-Trying to Scare Stations Out of Airing Anti-Kerry Ad

Human Events Online ^ | August 5, 2004 | Human Events

[hinterlander]

Lawyers for the DNC and Kerry-Edwards sent this letter to television station managers, claiming the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ad is "false" and "libelous." Click here for the full letter (can't be pasted into Free Republic window).

[Conservative4Life]

We should all call them and complain about the stifling of the 1st Amendment... Better close down Fort Marcey Park, its about to be used for questionable behavior...

[Dr.Deth]

By all means, advise them on the status of this advertisement:

Marc Elias, 202-434-1625
Joseph Sandler, 202-479-1111

[AndyTheBear]

Can anyone refute the claims in this letter?

Anyone paying attention can. The DNC seems desperate to convince people to adopt a prejudice and just move along without looking any further.

The Rats' problem is, many of the vets in the ad were in a photo of fellow swift boat Captains the Kerry campaign has already used (as the ad makes clear with clever camera work).

And as others have pointed out, the vets did not claim to be in Kerry's swift boat, only to have served with him. The doctor did not claim to have signed Kerry's sick call, but to have treated him.

The claim is a bunch of indignant straw man B.S. and has no chance in any court (other then the 9th U.S. circuit, but that hardly counts).

[Bob J]

I love the part about "lying to the Government" being a "serious allegation".

Obviously not so when a Clinton is in the White House.

[EdReform]

BTTT

[VOA]

Lawyers for the DNC and Kerry-Edwards sent this letter to television station managers,
claiming the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ad is "false" and "libelous."

Yep, Democrats are the authorities on The First Amendment.
When it comes to muzzling Christian speech and telling the truth about Democrats!

[Flush-the-Johns-2004]

Freep the heck out of their offices.

[RoseofTexas]

I am so UPSET I am spiting NAILS as I type this!!! WHERE THE F did freedom of speech GO?!!! ARE we suppose to just put our tails between our legs and run?!! Has USA become the former USSR?? Where the hell did FREE AMERICA vanish to for republicans?? GAWDDDD!

[Rastus]

They never claimed they were his crew. They are fellow swift boat commanders. Kerry's people are simply playing with the language. As for the doctor who treated him not being his doctor, that's true: the guy in the emergency room who stitched my head wasn't my regular physician, but he did sew me up. Same thing going on here.

[fight_truth_decay]

None of the men in the ad CLAIMED to have served ON HIS BOATS

Too close for me to call without facts.

There's a science to making people think and feel what the author wants them to feel. Michael Moore plays the propaganda card well on contextualizing, intentional omissions hard to spot, manipulation of cause and effect, framing.. never quite stating a fact, but leading the public carefully down the garden path, the old power of suggestion, ..correlations that might imply but never really say as such. Might call it the "art of the slippery word".

Dr. Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D has a paper out on "Propaganda & Fahrenheit 9/11" in pdf format-24 pages all should read! Propaganda & Fahrenheit 9/11

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Wow! UNBELIEVABLY boneheaded move on Team TerAYza's part, if so (and the letter certainly seems to confirm that)!

Had they simply ignored it, as (say) GWB refused to acknowledge MoveOn's loathsome "Hitler" ad -- Kerry (and his kid partner, Breck Girl) would have planted an image of themselves, in the electorate mass-mind, as being calm, confident and rational. "We abhor horrid accusations such as these" (they should have said), "but are confident that the American people, having seen/read them, will promptly reject such groundless blah blah blah," and you get the picture.

NOW, however...? NOW: they've managed to accomplish the bizarrely counter-intuitive feat of making themselves seem both unaccountably panic-stricken and given to distasteful lawyer-type bone-rattlings towards any/all who dare displease them -- simultaneously, mind!

A quick glance at the responses being posted at the kindergarten side of the schoolhouse, however (i.e., the DU boards), shows that no one over there seems to realize the staggering enormity of the latest Kerry/Edwards blunder, either... so: it may simply be some weird, congenital lacking on the parts of 'rats overall, ultimately.

Oh, well. THEIR funeral. :)

[dawn53]

Yeah, but all their braying (excuse the pun) will only draw attention to the ad.

Now we know they put protestors in barbed wire cages, and try to limit freedom of speech on TV.

I think Rush said yesterday, maybe today, that the best way to handle attack ads is just ignore them.

Bush definitely did this with Moore's movie. Kerry would be better to just let it die, but no, he's the one who started the emphasis on Vietnam, and now he's willing to bring Vietnam Vets into court.

I say "Go for it John Kerry, you're stupider than I thought."

[RobFromGa]

These SBV guys "are the heart and soul of America" if you ask me.

[Dan from Michigan]

If he didn't lie before the senate, then he is guilty of dereliction of duty.

Another felony.

[AUsome Joy]

I think that there is an overall organization of Swift Boat veterans, and within that is the organization of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Swift_Boat_Veterans_for_Truth

"The Swift Boat Vets for Truth include the entire chain of command above Kerry: Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard, Lt. Commander George Elliott, Captain Charles Plumly, Captain Adrian Lonsdale USCG (retired) and Rear Admiral Hoffmann (retired), as well as enlisted men, officers, men who served with Mr. Kerry, men who served in the same group of Swift boats and men intimately familiar with the operations and conduct of Swift boat operations during the war. The group also includes James Zumwalt, Lt. Colonel, U.S.M.C. (retired), representing his father, Admiral Elmo Russell Zumwalt, and brother, Lt. Elmo Russell Zumwalt III, both deceased."

[AUsome Joy]

I think that there is an overall organization of Swift Boat veterans, and within that is the organization of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Swift_Boat_Veterans_for_Truth

"The Swift Boat Vets for Truth include the entire chain of command above Kerry: Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard, Lt. Commander George Elliott, Captain Charles Plumly, Captain Adrian Lonsdale USCG (retired) and Rear Admiral Hoffmann (retired), as well as enlisted men, officers, men who served with Mr. Kerry, men who served in the same group of Swift boats and men intimately familiar with the operations and conduct of Swift boat operations during the war. The group also includes James Zumwalt, Lt. Colonel, U.S.M.C. (retired), representing his father, Admiral Elmo Russell Zumwalt, and brother, Lt. Elmo Russell Zumwalt III, both deceased."

[JoeGar]

What's the term used when one files a lawsuit, or threatens to file a lawsuit, just to take away your right of free speech? Is is a SLAM? a SLAMM? What's the term?

[exhaustedmomma]

Maybe it has to do with "privilege":
ANY DEFAMATORY STATEMENT THAT CAN'T BE PROVEN TRUE AND WASN'T TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM A PUBLIC RECORD OR GOVERNMENT PROCEEDING HAS TO BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS TO PRINT.

In writing about trials and arrests, make sure you check the record. Before the person is found guilty, always use words like "alleged" or "accused." In America, everyone is considered innocent before proven guilty.

Associated Press Style and Libel Guide.

Dictionary libel

You are right, it is EXTREMELY difficult to find slander or libel on a public person, including politicians. Curious situation. Both sides have legal teams. Where's a lawyer when you need one--- to explain this! ;)

[Steven W.]

There is a simple way to tell whether Kerry is telling the truth or not!

Read Christmas in Cambodia

If Nixon was president in 1968 (which he wasn't) then Kerry is a liar - it's that simple!