"Why would these peasants lie?", Koppel asked. O'Neill pointed out to Koppel that these "peasants" had government minders. I wish he had drilled home that point again and again, because of course those minders knew who John Kerry was, whether the peasants did or not.
Koppell was just as concerned with whether or not the "unknown American who visited the village earlier was someone in cahoots with the Swiftboaters. O'Neill sstrongly denied that and said it that was what Koppel was implying, he was wrong.
O'Neill strongly chastised NIGHTLINE for never having the Swifties on, and for going all the way to Viet Nam to investigate only the Silver Star incident. (It is bizarre, especially since the Swifties version of the Silver Star incident coincides with TOUR OF DUTY, and the other Kerry biography, written by 2 reporters from The Boston Globe.
Koppel kept telling O'Neill to stop quoting those two books, just answer my questions. Koppel refused to "get it", that those books PROVE what the "peasants" said was not even what Kerry himself has said happened.
O'Neill was controlled, but visibly upset with Ted Koppell for only being interested in the Silver Star incident. O'Neill pointed out several times that the Swifties never questioned Kerry deserved some kind of medal for his actions that day. Koppell didn't acknowledge O'Neill when he said that...he couldn't, it would have blown a hole in Koppell's professed desire to find the truth. Obvious to me, Koppell already had the truth about the Silver Star, it was safe to keep that the subject, and never go after the other more important incidents when Kerry did NOT earn medals or purple heartrs.
I didn't watch the first part of NIGHTLINE, but I watched all of the Koppell-O'Neill interview. O'Neill never waivered, never gave ground, and I believe he got the best of Koppell.
When O'Neill said to Koppell; you chose to go to Viet Nam to interview these people in a closed socieety, and did not ever question members of the Swiftboats, Koppell made the cheap shot comment, and I thought defensive comment, "you've had plenty of publicity in other places.
It boiled down to Koppell trying protest that the lofty ABC only wanted to find the truth.
Yes, Koppell visibly sighed in frustration as the interview segment ended. and yes, O"Neill said to Koppell, "You've been had.".
Koppel said: "you've had plenty of publicity in other places."
If this is not a blantant admission that the Nightline report intended to be one sided in support of Kerry, and admission of Nightline bias, then nothing is.
Koppel is shameless if he admitted this. Since when is a reporter supposed to go out and get only half the story?
Did Nightline clue in the viewers in advance that they were only going to present the other side of the story or did they intro under the pretense of objectivity. My journalism profs would have killed me if this report is as you say. Objective journalism, truely a lost art.
Ted was trying to make O'Neill answer to the charge that the account in Unfit of the Silver Star incident didn't jibe with either the after-action report or the alleged eyewitness accounts of the North Vietnamese along the river. In dispute was the characterization of the VC soldier shot by Kerry as a "kid" (the "eyewitnesses" say he was a strong young man) and whether or not there was truly a VC ambush of the swift boats (Unfit says there was a single soldier).
In addition to calling the Nightline report "ridiculous," O'Neill retorted that the Unfit version of the events that day weren't any different than those in two friendly biographies of Kerry, one written by Boston Globe writers and the other by Douglas Brinkley, Kerry's official biographer, who had access to Kerry's diary and whatever personal notes he has heretofore made available. To make his point, O'Neill repeatedly displayed those two books, and opened to bookmarked pages that contradicted the after-action report. This annoyed Koppel to no end, but O'Neill made his point -- several times -- while Ted was stuck on trying to make O'Neill answer why he -- not all three sources of the "single VC" story, but Unfit's alone -- had trouble having faith in the peasants along the river.
I agree with O'Neill that Koppel was "had," but not by the Vietnamese as much as by the people who approached Nightline and set the whole story up.
I might be really mad at Koppel if I had the energy to be more outraged at an ABC News report tonight. This show didn't upset me nearly as much as the fluffy interview of Liam Neeson by Cynthia McFadden on Primetime Live. Neeson portrayed degenerate sex-research pioneer Alfred Kinsey in a new movie coming out this fall (written and directed by Oscar-winning writer Bill Condon, who is a homosexual). The clips from the film indicate that Kinsey is made out to be a hero, and McFadden and Neeson had themselves a wonderful time agreeing what a blessing Kinsey was, being the progenitor of the New Morality and all.
McFadden and Neeson didn't get around to the part about how Kinsey, in "researching" the sexual response of children, employed pedophiles to violate them.
Expect Dr. Judith Reisman and Dr. Laura Schlessinger to raise holy Hades.
You did a great summary write up, not just of what was said, but what the show was conveying, addressing motives and attempts to derail the viewer. Your posts of this nature are consistently top-drawer and very helpful.