NYT Does the Swifties. McClellan Doesn’t.
The New York Times offers a thoroughly damning assessment of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth today: Friendly fire: The birth of an anti-Kerry ad.
Mr. Kerry called them “a front for the Bush campaign” – a charge the campaign denied.
A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush’s chief political aide, Karl Rove.
Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family – one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove’s, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush’s father’s presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush’s father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice. And the group’s television commercial was produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr. Bush’s father faced off in the 1988 presidential election.
The strategy the veterans devised would ultimately paint John Kerry the war hero as John Kerry the “baby killer” and the fabricator of the events that resulted in his war medals. But on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’ prove to be riddled with inconsistencies. In many cases, material offered as proof by these veterans is undercut by official Navy records and the men’s own statements.
Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry “unfit” had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year.
The article has lots more detail. So the question before us now is, in the presence of a bunch of made-up shit that smears one candidate, but which plays well in 30-second attack ads, despite being transparently false to anyone who analyzes the charges with anything approaching a critical eye, how will the voting public react?
Truly, this election is going to be vitally important in defining what kind of government we’re going to have. Whichever choice we make, we’re going to get exactly what we deserve.
On a related issue, be sure to check out Joshua Micah Marshall’s excerpt from yesterday’s press gaggle with Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, conducted at the Crawford Middle School. (Yes; fearless leader is on vacation again.) Anyway: Amazing. President Bush isn’t even man enough…
August 20th, 2004 at 10:03 am
The Daily Show
skewers the dishonest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Jon Stewart delivers an absolutely devastating critique of this “dishonorable” group of liars. (See video here.
Its more than merely hysterical — its instructive to the rest of the media. Too bad the mainstream press isn’t as savvy as Stewart.
If I was advising the Kerry campaign, I’d schedule him for Monday’s show — on the condition that Stewart rerun that bit about the SBVFT:
Then I’d have Kerry lay down a challenge to the rest of the media: See if you can keep up with the standards of a low budget, basic cable channel comedy show. If not, then keep the candidate coming back to TDS to have them do what the media simply has has not been able to: Tell the truth.
As an aside, the “Press” is rapidly becoming the “overpriced CD” of news content. Blogs and TDS are the MP3s in this equation (with blogging software as the P2P in this equation). If the media doesn’t catch a clue — and real quickly — they will find themselves becoming increasingly marginalized, just as the big music labels have. Blogs didn’t arise in a vaccuum — they came about due to the incompetance and failures of the major press to find the truth, post-2000.
See also “It’s Funny Because It’s True“
August 21st, 2004 at 9:55 am
You’re observation on Blogs is spot on. Whenever someone comments on a blog from an exceedingly narrow or uninformed point of view from either the left, right, or middle, the very next commentator tells them to read some other sources of info, usually referring to a web site — not to watch a particular TV program or listen to a certain radio show — unless of course the critic is a boot-licking winger telling you to listen to Rush more to broaden your perspectives.
Actually, I think that except for a few invaluable bloggers with some actual sources, the major media does a better job of exposing and reporting noteworthy events — they just don’t pick up on what is most interesting and publish it with as much vigor as bloggers. TV resorts to the opposing talking heads barking at each other too much, leaving it up to us to slap down the shills. Newspapers by-and-large do a bertter job over the course of time, and have the resources, but are bound by editorial and circulation conserns — and defamation laws, which bloggers tend to ignore (for now).
Of course we have the luxury of time and most of us aren’t as interested in ratings (yet thank god). Many bloggers also enjoy the freedom of deliberately coming at issues from an unapologetic perspective with no need for the pretense of being “fair or balanced.” They report, we slap them down like they’ve never had to deal with before.
August 22nd, 2004 at 8:49 am
You guys are actually providing some humor to this libertarian.
On one hand you attack the President (who has made mistakes – no question) but yet refuse to see that there might be some truth
in general to the Swiftie remarks, and likely some lying in John Kerry’s remarks and history. He may have served our country but his service is just as up for grabs as the attack on Bush’s National Guard record or anything else for that matter. I equate the ad with one put out by the NAACP (in the Democratic coffers) during the 2000 election, placing blame for the dragging of Byrd on Bush. The ad was out of line, but the ad kept running. What is funny is this ad has some truth to it.
I challenge anyone to look back at the 1971 Senate hearings, the 1971 debate between O’neill and Kerry (with Dick Cavett) and some of Kerry’s statements in the last year and you can easily see a man who is a walking contradiction.
If Kerry is so concerned, the campaign should ignore the spot, by brushing mention of it aside. Or are they really responding because they know something may be true and would like the damage to stop.
This is an election year, all is fair in love and war. Everything is grey, there is no black & white. Also do not bring up blatently slanted media outlets as your backup. Especially Jon Stewart, another hero of editing and half-truths, a-la Michael Moore. I love how he chose to tackle the subject of the veterans not being on the same boat by telling a half truth and saying “they only served in Vietnam with him”, and not addressing the full truth, that these guys were side by side with the guy (Kerry). Does he even understand swift boat formations??? Does he even know that these boats are small, and as protection they would go out in patrols in a formation??? These guys are sometimes so close to one another that a guy on a boat could spit in the eye of another guy in another boat. I think that is pretty close to observe, don’t you think.
Honestly I’m beginning you guys on the far left slightly more than the far right, because your ideology is less scrutinized by your peers (a majority of the press), and you make anything seem plausible.
August 22nd, 2004 at 2:50 pm
Bill, I agree 100% These people just don’t know which way they are going.