John Kerry media jackals go after swift boat veterans
Addison Ross
Deeply worried that the swift boat veterans' ads are damaging John Kerry his media pals intensified their campaign to destroy the credibility of these veterans.
On August 20 the New York Times struck back for Kerry by allocating a huge amount of space to the swift boat veterans. The article will now be used by the Democrats, who basically wrote it anyway, and the rest of mainstream media to attack the swift boat veterans and their allies.
Nevertheless, it should be plain to honest observers that the article was nothing but a hit job by Kate Zernike and Jim Rutenberg, who masqueraded as honest journalists. This pair of party hacks painted the swift boat veterans as Republican stooges by linking them to the GOP. In other words, they were forced to use guilt by association to taint these men because they were unable to refute their allegations.
This sleazy tactic immediately raised two important points. First, how does these veterans' funding affect the truth of what they say, unless Zernike and Rutenberg are trying to infer that the veteranss were been paid to lie by wicked Republicans.
The second point is that neither the Times nor John Kerry mouthpieces Zernike and Rutenberg complained about vicious attacks by the Dems' 527s on President Bush. Nor did they draw attention to the fact that these 527s have so far received over $70 million from Dem supporters.
The Times can be gauged from the fact that it continues to ignore the actions of vicious Dem operatives like Harold Ickes and Zack Exley who have been coordinating, in defiance of the law, the activities of their 527s with the John Kerry campaign.
So why didn't Zernike and Rutenberg, not to mention their corrupt editors, object to these activities? Well, in fact the paper did finally object to 527s — after the swift boat ads, which only cost about $500,000, began to hurt Kerry.
While this pious hypocrites express phoney concern about the activities of the Dems' 527s it continued to run a vicious anti-Bush campaign of its own, of which the Zernike and Rutenberg hit job is a part. This is the same greasy rag that had the gall to call on Bush to halt the veterans' ad campaign while refusing to make the same demand of John Kerry with respect to his own 527s.
By linking the swift boat veterans to Republican funding Zernike and Rutenberg were using the vindictive tactic of guilt by association. Therefore, according to these paragons of honest journalism, anyone who takes money from a Republican source is at best untrustworthy and at worst a liar. This speaks volumes about these phoney journalists' attitude towards Republicans.
But what matters, as any reasonable person knows, is not the source of the funds but the truth of the charges. This is something the mainstream media has refused to consider. The same Democratic mouthpieces that slavishly follow Dem talking points as if they were carved in stone have now turned to smearing John Kerry's fellow veterans because they have the courage to speak out against him.
The Dr Letson incident is an excellent example of Zernike and Rutenberg's contempt for the truth and the reputation of others. They falsely charged that Letson did not treat John Kerry. But Letson had already publicly pointed out that the signature on the medical record was that of the late J. C. Carreon, who was not a doctor.
That Carreon signed the medial record in lieu of Dr Letson is, as this pair well knows, irrelevant because Kerry admits he was treated by a doctor, and Letson was the only doctor on the base from September 1968 to September 1969.
Far be it from me to impugn the motives and professionalism of the noble Zernike and Rutenberg, but am I alone in noticing that their charge against Dr Letson is identical to the line taken by Marc Elias and Joseph Sandler. (By the way, this rag also devoted masses of space to Dem allegations about Bush's National Guard service).
Elian is the General Counsel for the Kerry-Edwards campaign and Sandler is General Counsel for the Democratic National Committee. No ain't that curious? Not that I'm suggesting for a moment that Zernike and Rutenberg take their marching orders from the DNC. Still, it makes one wonder why they used the Elias and Sandler line to eagerly impugn Dr Letson's integrity.
The Washington Post is another disgusting example of media bigotry. It used the freedom of information act to accuse swift boat vet Larry Thurlow of being a liar. (Isn't odd how these fearless newspapers can't be bothered dig up all of John Kerry's records?)
Fortunately the Post's sleazy tactic backfired when it appeared that the citation they quoted was copied from Kerry's, which he himself apparently wrote. Out of concern for the truth, the swift boat veterans contacted the journalist. Surprise, surprise, he refused to speak with them.
On August 21 the Los Angeles Times published another hit job, this time by Matea Gold and Maria L. La Ganga. The thing read like a John Kerry campaign press release. For example, it mentioned Larry Thurlow but omitted any reference to the origin of his citation. It also — wait for it — devoted an entire paragraph to the Texas developer who helped fund the swift boat veterans' ad. The only thing missing from the article was Kerry's name in the byline.
The Media Research Center has revealed just how bigoted and corrupt the American media is. For example, it found that by August 20 the CBS, ABC and NBC had broadcast only nine stories about the swift boat veterans, nearly all of which were personal attacks on the veteranss. But the same networks had broadcast 75 stories about the Dems' charge that Bush went AWOL from the National Guard. So much for honest journalism.
The swift boat veterans' case is detailed in Unfit for Command but don't expect the media any time soon to actually deal with the facts. But do expect the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the rest of the Dem media to keep inventing dirt and running interference for John Kerry.
Remember, the mainstream media see their job as putting John Kerry in the White House and to hell with the truth — and especially the swift boat veterans, who have now found out the hard way that the mainstream media are a pack of lying political bigots.
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 23 August 2004