The Main Stream Media continues to miss the point
Posted by McQ
It is simply amazing to me to watch the main stream media refuse to remove the blinders on this Swift Boat Vets controversy. In today's Seattle Times, Floyd J. McKay, a professor and regular contributor to the ST, gives the opinion that is still reflected in most major media outlets.
He insists, for instance:
Democrats were virtually forced to nominate a war hero to counter the strutting self-assurance of the commander in chief. The war hero was then virtually forced to pledge more soldiers, more weapons, more security.
Then, as if to prove their mastery, Republican strategists unleashed the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in one of the nastiest smear campaigns since the days of Richard Nixon.
Yet the blogosphere destroyed that rubbish in its infancy, correctly pointing out that there are no connections which even hint at "direction" from the White House. Result: Ignored by "experts" such as McKay. Apparently its inconceivable to those like McKay that a group of veterans could have a problem with one of their own that's been festering for 35 years. It has to be a Nixonian style smear campaign. And from that preconceived premise comes the rest of the nonsense found in his piece.
Secondly, those like McKay and the rest of the media insist they've done their job and found the Swift Boat Vets story wanting:
The best investigative reporting on the issue thus far comes from The Washington Post, and it supports Kerry's version of events. So do the men who served on his boat, who certainly were closest to the action. The latest participant to step forward, a career military man from Oregon who will not vote for Kerry, says Kerry's account is truthful.
Again, nonsense. The WaPo story as well as those found the NYT and LAT have been sliced and diced in the blogosphere. Simply they've been utterly discredited. Blogs such as Captain's Quarters, BeldarBlog and this one have destroyed most of the investigative efforts attempted by the MSM. What's been obvious in all of this is, for the most part, the MSM is easily duped by stories of the military because of their profound lack of experience and spectacular lack of expertice and understanding of the military and how it works.
To make that point, McKay has the following to say:
But the anti-Kerry smear campaign has served to obscure Bush's lack of service, in particular those missing months in Alabama. Bush used his dad's connections to get a premier National Guard slot and then got approval to go campaigning in Alabama. Yet, no one seems to have seen him show up for work. Unless I've missed it, no one has raised a hand and testified that he and Bush flew together in Alabama.
Well, if I had flown with a guy who's now president, I sure as heck would show up to defend him. Perhaps the rabbit will be pulled from the hat this week in New York.
Anyone who took a few minutes to research this knows that a) there was no "line" for pilot's slots in the TANG, they were looking for volunteers and b) there was no flying slot in Alabama for Bush so there'd never be anyone who'd raise their hand saying they "flew together" in Alabama. McKay is as ill-informed a writer as you'll ever see ... yet its obvious the editors who let this pass think he's apparently "factually correct".
McKay's piece is total nonsense passed off as intelligent and factual criticism. But in reality, its not a cogent argument at all. At best, its a political diatribe with the aim of misleading.
And this is where blogs are so valuable. If you've read any of them concerning this issue, you can now, with confidence, reject this sort of "argument" for what it really is.
Politically driven nonsense.
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