It doesn't matter that the attacks on Kerry's war record are false, it makes for a damn good story
Even so-called objective reporters treat stories like the Republican attack on Kerry's war record not as something factual to be gotten to the bottom of, but as a "controversy" that merely requires equal time be given to both sides. So even though the facts strongly support Kerry's version of events, that's not the overall impression one gets from following the story in objective news organizations.
Many of these same media outlets have actually done some investigative reporting (see yesterday's post) that strongly support Kerry's version of events, but yet refuse to label the GOP Swift Boat Veterans claims as false. In Tuesday's Chicago Tribune, for example, the lead story was about Bush's (weak) denunciation of all 527 group-sponsored ads. There was not a single evaluative comment on the truth or falsity of the claims against Kerry. Only buried in an accompanying news analysis piece emphasizing that both candidates may have overplayed the Vietnam issue do we finally get this telling comment:
"For now, though, the president's backers have dominated the conversation, and it might not matter who is ultimately correct, even if the facts as are known today seem to heavily favor Kerry's version of events."
So much for journalists shedding light on the truth.
And while the so-called objective journalists obscure the truth, the conservative media echo-chamber at Fox News and on talk radio have no pretensions to objectivity, so for them, it's all Swift Boat Vets Against Kerry All the Time, as the following New York Times article details:
On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record
August 24, 2004
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
There is the fog of war and then there is the fog of cable.
Over the last few weeks, 24-hour news networks have done
little to find out what John Kerry did in Vietnam, but they
have provided a different kind of public service: their
examination of his war record in Vietnam illustrates once
again just how perfunctory and confusing cable news
coverage can be. Facts, half-truths and passionately
tendentious opinions get tumbled together on screen like
laundry in an industrial dryer - without the softeners of
fact-checking or reflection.
Somehow, on all-cable news stations - CNN as well as Fox
News - a story that rises or falls on basic and mostly
verifiable facts blurs into just another developing news
sensation alongside the latest Utah kidnapping or the Scott
Peterson murder trial. (It is particularly confusing on Fox
News, where so many of its blond female anchors look like
Amber Frey.)
Fox News, which delivers its news with "Fight Club"
ferocity, has relished the controversy the most, seizing
hungrily on charges that Mr. Kerry lied to gain his medals.
Those accusations, which have not been substantiated, were
made in the book "Unfit for Command," co-written by a
former Swift boat commander and longtime Kerry critic, John
O'Neill. Fox News has pushed the story early, often, and
sometimes even late.
Yesterday, President Bush denounced all third-party
campaign ads, including the ads by a group called Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth, and called his opponent's war
record admirable. Fox anchors made note of that
development, then raced back to the disparaging remarks
former Senator Bob Dole made to CNN on Sunday about Mr.
Kerry's Purple Heart medals. ("Never bled that I know of,"
said Mr. Dole, who was badly wounded in World War II.)
Fox News showed, again, a clip of Mr. Dole complaining that
it was hypocritical of Kerry, a former opponent of the war,
to run now as a proud Vietnam veteran. The Fox anchor
Laurie Dhue then turned to her liberal guest, Elaine
Kamarck, a former Gore campaign adviser.
"I mean, this does make it sound like he speaks from both
sides of his mouth on this," Ms. Dhue said. "Could this
hurt the Kerry campaign?"
Ms. Kamarck disagreed.
Fred Barnes, the executive editor of The Weekly Standard
and a regular Fox commentator, ardently defended the Swift
boat critics of Mr. Kerry, saying on Fox that a majority of
the senator's Vietnam brethren believed that Mr. Kerry
"fabricated or exaggerated his record." Mr. Barnes added
that "the entire chain of command above Kerry have said the
same thing." He did not mention any notable exceptions in
that chain of command, including Senator John W. Warner,
Republican of Virginia, a former secretary of the Navy who
said Mr. Kerry fully merited the Silver Star. Mr. Barnes's
hyperbole went unchecked.
CNN showed less relish over the Swift boat clash, but it
was not much more helpful in separating fact from friction.
Wolf Blitzer's interview with the tart-tongued Mr. Dole
made a lot of news on Sunday, but CNN allowed him to make
misleading assertions without pointing out where he was in
error. Mr. Dole suggested that Mr. Kerry was in a rush to
obtain his Purple Hearts to meet a regulation that allowed
soldiers to leave the war zone after winning three. "I
mean, the first one, whether he ought to have a Purple
Heart - he got two in one day, I think. And he was out of
there in less than four months, because three Purple Hearts
and you're out." ( Mr. Kerry did not receive two Purple
Hearts for events of the same day. He received them for the
events of Dec. 2, 1968; Feb. 20, 1969; and March 13, 1969.)
Finally, yesterday afternoon, Mr. Blitzer spoke to Mr. Dole
by telephone and asked him if he regretted any of his
statements. Mr. Dole said he did not.
"I wasn't trying to be mean-spirited," Mr. Dole said. "I
was just trying to say all these guys on the other side
just can't be Republican liars."
That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news,
where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather
than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy
habit: anchors do not referee - they act as if their
reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two
opposing spokesmen on any issue.
Fox commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are
famous for their informal, intemperate manner of speech.
But the debate on programs like "Crossfire," on CNN, is
often as heated - and as full of hot air. On an Aug. 12
edition about the Swift boat debate, a program regular,
Robert Novak, the conservative columnist, called Mr.
O'Neill and his fellow anti-Kerry veterans "the real
patriots to rise to the surface this election year."
James Carville, Mr. Novak's liberal counterpart, challenged
Mr. O'Neill's co-author, Jerome Corsi, charging that Mr.
Corsi's blog is "scabrous." When Mr. O'Neill tried to
change the subject, Mr. Carville shrieked at him.
At best, cable news programs swing into action when a
crisis or major news development occurs, marshaling their
resources to give viewers instant, live access. At their
worst, they amplify the loudest voices and blur
complexities. People can blame the confusion of combat for
some of the discrepancies over Mr. Kerry's war record, but
cable has done little to clear the air.
Many of these same media outlets have actually done some investigative reporting (see yesterday's post) that strongly support Kerry's version of events, but yet refuse to label the GOP Swift Boat Veterans claims as false. In Tuesday's Chicago Tribune, for example, the lead story was about Bush's (weak) denunciation of all 527 group-sponsored ads. There was not a single evaluative comment on the truth or falsity of the claims against Kerry. Only buried in an accompanying news analysis piece emphasizing that both candidates may have overplayed the Vietnam issue do we finally get this telling comment:
"For now, though, the president's backers have dominated the conversation, and it might not matter who is ultimately correct, even if the facts as are known today seem to heavily favor Kerry's version of events."
So much for journalists shedding light on the truth.
And while the so-called objective journalists obscure the truth, the conservative media echo-chamber at Fox News and on talk radio have no pretensions to objectivity, so for them, it's all Swift Boat Vets Against Kerry All the Time, as the following New York Times article details:
On Cable, a Fog of Words About Kerry's War Record
August 24, 2004
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
There is the fog of war and then there is the fog of cable.
Over the last few weeks, 24-hour news networks have done
little to find out what John Kerry did in Vietnam, but they
have provided a different kind of public service: their
examination of his war record in Vietnam illustrates once
again just how perfunctory and confusing cable news
coverage can be. Facts, half-truths and passionately
tendentious opinions get tumbled together on screen like
laundry in an industrial dryer - without the softeners of
fact-checking or reflection.
Somehow, on all-cable news stations - CNN as well as Fox
News - a story that rises or falls on basic and mostly
verifiable facts blurs into just another developing news
sensation alongside the latest Utah kidnapping or the Scott
Peterson murder trial. (It is particularly confusing on Fox
News, where so many of its blond female anchors look like
Amber Frey.)
Fox News, which delivers its news with "Fight Club"
ferocity, has relished the controversy the most, seizing
hungrily on charges that Mr. Kerry lied to gain his medals.
Those accusations, which have not been substantiated, were
made in the book "Unfit for Command," co-written by a
former Swift boat commander and longtime Kerry critic, John
O'Neill. Fox News has pushed the story early, often, and
sometimes even late.
Yesterday, President Bush denounced all third-party
campaign ads, including the ads by a group called Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth, and called his opponent's war
record admirable. Fox anchors made note of that
development, then raced back to the disparaging remarks
former Senator Bob Dole made to CNN on Sunday about Mr.
Kerry's Purple Heart medals. ("Never bled that I know of,"
said Mr. Dole, who was badly wounded in World War II.)
Fox News showed, again, a clip of Mr. Dole complaining that
it was hypocritical of Kerry, a former opponent of the war,
to run now as a proud Vietnam veteran. The Fox anchor
Laurie Dhue then turned to her liberal guest, Elaine
Kamarck, a former Gore campaign adviser.
"I mean, this does make it sound like he speaks from both
sides of his mouth on this," Ms. Dhue said. "Could this
hurt the Kerry campaign?"
Ms. Kamarck disagreed.
Fred Barnes, the executive editor of The Weekly Standard
and a regular Fox commentator, ardently defended the Swift
boat critics of Mr. Kerry, saying on Fox that a majority of
the senator's Vietnam brethren believed that Mr. Kerry
"fabricated or exaggerated his record." Mr. Barnes added
that "the entire chain of command above Kerry have said the
same thing." He did not mention any notable exceptions in
that chain of command, including Senator John W. Warner,
Republican of Virginia, a former secretary of the Navy who
said Mr. Kerry fully merited the Silver Star. Mr. Barnes's
hyperbole went unchecked.
CNN showed less relish over the Swift boat clash, but it
was not much more helpful in separating fact from friction.
Wolf Blitzer's interview with the tart-tongued Mr. Dole
made a lot of news on Sunday, but CNN allowed him to make
misleading assertions without pointing out where he was in
error. Mr. Dole suggested that Mr. Kerry was in a rush to
obtain his Purple Hearts to meet a regulation that allowed
soldiers to leave the war zone after winning three. "I
mean, the first one, whether he ought to have a Purple
Heart - he got two in one day, I think. And he was out of
there in less than four months, because three Purple Hearts
and you're out." ( Mr. Kerry did not receive two Purple
Hearts for events of the same day. He received them for the
events of Dec. 2, 1968; Feb. 20, 1969; and March 13, 1969.)
Finally, yesterday afternoon, Mr. Blitzer spoke to Mr. Dole
by telephone and asked him if he regretted any of his
statements. Mr. Dole said he did not.
"I wasn't trying to be mean-spirited," Mr. Dole said. "I
was just trying to say all these guys on the other side
just can't be Republican liars."
That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news,
where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather
than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy
habit: anchors do not referee - they act as if their
reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two
opposing spokesmen on any issue.
Fox commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are
famous for their informal, intemperate manner of speech.
But the debate on programs like "Crossfire," on CNN, is
often as heated - and as full of hot air. On an Aug. 12
edition about the Swift boat debate, a program regular,
Robert Novak, the conservative columnist, called Mr.
O'Neill and his fellow anti-Kerry veterans "the real
patriots to rise to the surface this election year."
James Carville, Mr. Novak's liberal counterpart, challenged
Mr. O'Neill's co-author, Jerome Corsi, charging that Mr.
Corsi's blog is "scabrous." When Mr. O'Neill tried to
change the subject, Mr. Carville shrieked at him.
At best, cable news programs swing into action when a
crisis or major news development occurs, marshaling their
resources to give viewers instant, live access. At their
worst, they amplify the loudest voices and blur
complexities. People can blame the confusion of combat for
some of the discrepancies over Mr. Kerry's war record, but
cable has done little to clear the air.
posted by JFH @ 11:25 PM
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