Oh that Liberal Media!
<font size=4>If there were any Republican plaintiffs' lawyers, they could sue the Fourth Estate for malpractice on the Kerry Vietnam story.
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Hugh Hewitt
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Assuming that John Kerry ever holds a press conference, here are the questions that should be asked first:
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"Senator, last week your staff said you hadn't been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968, even though you had written and spoken emphatically about having been there on many occasions, including the floor of the Senate. How did you make such a mistake?"
"What persuaded you last week that your memory from all those years was wrong?"
"In June of last year you showed a Washington Post reporter a hat you carry in a compartment of your attache case and told her that a CIA man gave you that hat when you took him on your swift boat across the border into Cambodia. Do you have the hat with you?"
"Could you please tell us everything about that trip, your conversation with CIA man, and whether any members of your crew participated in that conversation?"
"Which day did that occur?"
"Your staff said this week that you made a trip into Cambodia carrying quote commandos close quote. Was that the same trip as this trip with the CIA man?"
"How many commandos were there? What date did this occur on?"
"Historian Douglas Brinkley has said that your journals indicated three or four cross border missions to Cambodia, where you acted as a ferry-man for SEALs, Green Berets and CIA men. Is he right about his number?"
"Can you detail these missions for us?"
"In June of 2000, you told a reporter for U.S.News & World Report that you had run weapons to anticommunist forces in Cambodia. Can you provide us the details of those missions? Which forces were you resupplying? Which weapons did you take? Where did you drop them off?"
"Did you provide reports of all these missions? Did you make entries in your log about the ship's movements? Have you discussed these covert missions with the crew since they occurred?"
"You have not authorized the release of all your military
and medical records by signing an SF-180. Why not? Will
you do so now?"
"Will you hold another press conference tomorrow so we can follow up on your answers?"
"What do you think about war veterans who exaggerate their
accomplishments in order to advance their careers?"
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Posted at 2:45 PM, Pacific
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If there were any Republican plaintiffs' lawyers, they could sue the Fourth Estate for malpractice on the Kerry Vietnam story. Kerry lashed out at the Swift Boat vets today, thus inviting huge print coverage tomorrow and television coverage tonight, but I am betting that most of that coverage will be botched, looking not at the key charges --and admissions of their accuracy made by the Kerry campaign-- but at Kerry's smokescreen of allegations that the group is a front for the Bush campaign. <font color=blue>This counterattack is a complete red herring, as the 527s are by law separate from the campaigns, and even if they were not, the Soros/Ickes machines set the standard for 527 mischief, not the handful of dollars scraped together by the vets.<font color=black>
The coverage should first ask which charges about Kerry's Vietnam records have already been proven to be true --that he falsely claimed to have been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968-- and which other charges have been found to be credible by sources independent of the swift vets?
Here's an e-mail I sent to a Washington Post reporter today, asking the reporter to appear on the program this afternoon:<font color=green>
"Dear ____________:
I'd like you to come on today to discuss the terrible handling of the Kerry Vietnam War record.
To summarize my pov:
Kerry repeatedly and emphatically used his Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia story, and the press has not covered his recanting of that story.
Kerry has claimed --in your paper-- to have transported a CIA man into Cambodia, a claim he has made to the Los Angeles Times and which Douglas Brinkley also has made, a claim for which there is no evidence and which his commanding officer denies. The press has not questioned Kerry on this.
Brinkley has said Kerry made three or four trips into Cambodia as a <font color=blue>"ferry-man"<font color=green> for SEALs, Green Berets and CIA men, and again there is no evidence for this, and Kerry's commander has denied such missions occurring. Kerry's spokesman yesterday claimed one commando mission, but there's no evidence for that either. The press has not covered this.
Finally, Kerry told U.S. News and World Report in 2000 that he ran weapons into Cambodia for the anticommunist forces there. I verified with the reporter that Kerry told him that, and there's zero in the record to support this.
The press, of course, hasn't asked Kerry about this.
So we have a candidate for president, running on his war record, who has admitted lying about his war record, but a press that won't examine the other glaring holes in that war record, or even report the extent of the admitted lie.
What's going on ___________: incompetence or ideological blinkers?
Please come on the show to discuss."
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In addition to this request, my producer and I have made at least a half-dozen requests for interviews to historian Douglas Brinkley, four requests to Boston Globe reporter Michael Kranish, requests to the two Chicago Tribune reporters covering the story, another Washington Post reporter covering the story, four requests to Washington Post reporter Laura Blumenfeld, who first published the CIA man with the hat story, four requests to Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan, one call to the AP's Ron Fornier, one call to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mark Nemick, two calls to the Kansas City Star's Scott Canon, and one call to the Washington Times Stephan Dinan, and one call to the Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein.
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In the past month the show has featured Vice President Cheney, Mrs. Cheney, Deputy Secretary of State Armitage, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, and has been positively lousy with senators, congressmen etc.
When a program can book major policy makers but cannot get journalists to appear, there's a vulnerability that is obvious to all of the reporters which none of them care to defend. It really is that simple. Virginia Postrel and Glenn Reynolds have written about this, and just as the story of Kerry's lies made it past the old guard, so will the story of the incompetence/ideological bias of the old guard reach beyond the old guard.
What is amazing is that the toll the story has taken on Kerry had reached so high as to oblige Kerry to respond today, even though it has had zero assist from big media except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Deborah Orin at the New York Post and Scott Canon at the Kansas City Star.
If any journalism school uses the case method, start putting the paperwork together for "the case of the missing press corps --proving liberal bias in big media."
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