Lileks cuts to the chase.
So I don’t want to spend 9000 words on the Swift Boat vets right now. There are two tales here: the story, and how the story will be played in the dino media. I have nothing to add to the first and it’s too early to comment on the latter. This is not about Vietnam. This is about character, and this is about spin. Over the next week there’s going to be a lot of discussion in newsrooms about what this story means, and how the mainstream media’s handling of the charges will affect their image. They can tear the story down to the foundation and root for the truth, or they can hide behind he-said-they-said reportage. It’s their Waterloo. We’ll see.
I am not optimistic given that Kerry's "Bush mislead" meme and 9/11 WWKD spin on Moore's gas-baggery have not been challenged, but amplified as reportage.
Kerry voted for the congressional resolution in October 2002 that authorized the war. But when the Democratic ticket's train stopped in the tiny Missouri River town of Washington, Teresa Heinz Kerry agreed with her husband's accusation that Bush misled Americans in the run-up to war."You cannot solve problems by throwing stones," she told a cluster of listeners from a perch on the caboose. "And you cannot solve problems by telling lies, and you cannot solve problems by wishing ill to other people. The only way you solve problems is by holding hands and talking about it, and that's what we want to do in this country
Hold hands? Why does this bring to mind Jean Negulesco's 1953 production of Titanic? As the great ship lists and the last lifeboat rows away, the passengers hold hands and sing "Nearer My God To Thee".
If the Kerry campaign's rhetoric doesn't scare the hell out of you, then perhaps some gene pool thinning is in order.
UPDATE: Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry
"Captain George Elliott describes an article appearing in today’s edition of the BOSTON GLOBE by Mike Kranish as extremely inaccurate and highly misstating his actual views. He reaffirms his statement in the current advertisement paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Captain Elliott reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his request that he ad be played.
It appears that Kranish is also on the Kerry payroll as he is writing the official Kerry Edwards campaign book. The Globe forced Mike Barnicle's resignation over unproven plagiarism charges, yet they have no problem with their Kerry beat reporter in the campaign's employ?
Posted by feste at August 6, 2004 10:27 AM | TrackBack