Kerry, the Media, and the Swifties

The telling thing about the Swift-Boat Veterans story is the way the mainstream media took their cues from the Kerry campaign. Kerry and his campaign were largely silent about this ad for 2 full weeks from the time it began to run on 5 August until 19 August. The New York Times and Washington Post were likewise utterly silent on the story, and did not mention it until Kerry’s campaign had decided on its own counter-attack message. Then, with the same message on the same day as the Kerry campaign, the Times opened up, albeit with a weak set of facts they had been dealt, and actively tried to discredit the Swift-Boat Vets.

It is not a lack of objectivity that is the problem. Rather, it is that the MSM is behaving in a manner every bit as partisan as most blogs, while maintaining that their reporting is somehow more objective and creditable. Thus they continue to destroy their own stock in trade – credibility – in order to advance their political beliefs. That is their choice. It’s their business (and they are in business, not public service, despite the sanctimonious gushing).

The Times taking its cue from the Kerry campaign is reminiscent of the way Pravda used to operate on cues from the Soviet Politburo. Kremlin watchers, both within the Soviet Union and in the west, would read between the lines of the stories in Pravda in an effort to inform their speculation about the secret goings on in the Politburo. Often they had to endure long periods of official silence. The official silence in the days following the Chernobyl accident was typical. Today it is the NY Times readers who have to wait for official news, as they did with the Swift-Boat story from August 5-19, or get their news elsewhere. Irony abounds.

Today’s Globe and Times both have Swift-Boat stories. The Globe story has little tidbits of half-truth as usual. For instance:

Yesterday, the veterans upped the ante by rolling out another ad as part of a $600,000 buy that will begin airing Tuesday in three states where "Kerry has touted his military service," according to the group's spokesman, Sean McCabe. The spot features several veterans harshly criticizing Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony about atrocities that occurred in Vietnam. A statement quotes Admiral Roy Hoffman, founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying, "What John Kerry did made Jane Fonda look like a Red Cross volunteer. It was terribly demoralizing."

The Kerry campaign responded with a statement condemning "another ad from a front group funded by Bush allies that is trying to smear John Kerry. The newest ad takes Kerry's testimony out of context, editing what he said to distort the facts.”

Sorry, no. The atrocities were an allegation, not a proven fact. Kerry was charging that these atrocities were widespread and that the entire military chain of command was complicit. Read his testimony. Unfortunately for him, when you give testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under oath, it leaves an enduring paper trail.

The second Swift-Boat ad is more damaging than the first, as a Times story today alludes:

Interspersed with their comments is Mr. Kerry's Senate testimony in 1971 recounting accusations of war crimes in Vietnam, involving soldiers who had "raped, cut off ears,'' and "razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.''

Mr. Kerry's campaign argued that he was relating accusations made by others and that he had since described some of his past remarks as excessive. But some Democrats said privately they feared that this ad would have even more impact than the last, whose charges have not been substantiated.

Unsubstatiated? A Pravda-like repetition of the Party Line. Does this mean that the Times still believes Kerry spent Christmas Eve in Cambodia?

"It's not something that can be easily or successfully discredited,'' said one party strategist, who requested anonymity because he did not want to be seen as undermining Mr. Kerry's campaign. "It's guys talking about how they felt and you can't discredit someone's description of his own feelings.''

I speculate that the third Swift-Boat ad will be even harder for Kerry to swallow. Why? Because (again I speculate) they will discuss how he met with the North Vietnamese in Paris while a young Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. This event reeks of Kerry’s amazing hubris, and while there is no transcript as there is with his Senate testimony, the fact of such a visit is not one that can be explained away.

A dissident Navy Lieutenant wasn’t ferrying any CIA guys to the North Vietnamese delegation or carrying a personal message from Henry Kissinger. Kerry was inserting himself where any sailor or patriot had no business being. Let him try to explain why.