SwiftVets.com

[Me#1You#10]

No bias here...move along now...move along...

[Barbie2004]

This is why I have said that our war is not over. The MSM and their "useful idiots" are going to try to "rewrite" history and "rewrite facts."

The Swiftboat Veterans & POWs & all veterans were the heroes in the election cycle and in their service to this country. They have now won two battles and the country is so very grateful!

I and many others are willing to continue the "war" and do our part to make sure that the record reflects "actual facts."

What I do not for the life of me understand . . . how can these people be so dishonest? The author(s) of tripe knows that there are many of us who know the truth. So why do they publish lies?

Even if there are "ideological" differences, at least ideological differences would be based on "opinion."

But that bogus article is based on fabrications and deliberate omissions! How can anyone publish lies??

[Mother]

Maybe this will make you feel better.

MUTH’S TRUTHS
“Far-Left vs. Far-Right Values”
by Chuck Muth
November 14, 2004

Conservatives can't help but enjoy the pain and agony running through
the ranks of Democrats, assorted Hollywood liberals and “old media”
left-wingers over the November 2 results. As is pointed out in my
soon-to-be released book on the 2004 election - “Ketchup With Your Crow, Mr.
Moore?” - the left pulled out all the stops and stopped at nothing in
their effort to win at any cost.

They funneled money from wealthy Bush-hating liberals into the pockets
of anti-war front groups who used the money to register voters who, in
many cases, weren’t legally eligible to vote...including Mary Poppins
and Dick Tracey.

They lied about Bush lying about WMD’s. They over-hyped the Abu Ghraib
“abuse” story. They manufactured a story about missing munitions. And
they buried the story about John Kerry maybe not getting an honorable
discharge from the military until Jimmy Carter “pardoned” him.

Speaking of which, they tried to make a stink about President Bush’s
fully-disclosed military service records while steadfastly refusing to
release Sen. Kerry’s. Dan Rather and CBS even went so far as to use some
“doctored” Bush records to try to make a story out of a story that
wasn’t there.

John Kerry made claims of meeting with “foreign leaders” who he claimed
were backing him...only he refused to name any names. The only one
David Letterman could come up with: Queen Latifah.

They threatened college students with false stories about President
Bush bringing back the military draft...even though it was DEMOCRATS in
Congress who had actually introduced such legislation.

They ransacked GOP offices, vandalized cars, beat the tar out of a cop
at the GOP convention, ripped a Bush sign out of the hands of a
3-year-old sitting on her daddy’s shoulders, slashed tires, kicked, pushed and
shoved. Hey, remember Al Franken tackling that Howard Dean heckler in
New Hampshire?

They assembled an army of legal vultures who hovered over the election
just waiting to swoop down and snatch any close victory away from
Republicans. Fortunately, the election results were outside the “margin of
litigation.”

John Kerry dressed up as a hunter for Halloween in an attempt to (a)
make people think the gun issue is about hunting, not self-defense, and
(b) make people think he was actually a friend of gun owners despite his
abysmal gun rights record. Talk about an “October Disguise.”

They used a fake voice for an automated phone message falsely telling
voters that Gen. “Stormin'” Norman Schwarzkopf was endorsing John Kerry.
If Schwarzkopf ever finds out who did that, you can bet they’ll need
the jaws-of-life to remove the boot from where the general is going to
stick it.

In essence, the other side’s campaign can pretty much be summed up in
three words: Lie...Cheat...Steal. And they wonder what “values” people
are talking about? Totally clueless.

On the other hand, all this fear-and-loathing about “Jesusland” and the
rise of the religious right isn’t completely without merit.
Unfortunately, ordinary American church-goers are being broad-brushed into the
“Crazy Christian” camp of folks such as Joe Glover, president of an
organization called the Family Policy Network. You see, Joe’s really
steamed at President Bush. Why? I’ll let him explain...

“The day after George Bush was elected president again, because of this
morals revolution taking place in our country, he allows his vice
president to not only put his lesbian daughter on the platform, but to bring
her lesbian 'partner' up on the stage with him,” Glover laments. “It
almost seems to be a slap in the face from the get-go against the very
conservatives that re-elected the president at a time when he ought to
be paying them some homage and respect."

Yes, the Chicken Little left is running around yelling, “The Christians
are coming! The Christians are coming!” But un-Christian,
un-American, homo-centric wing-nuts like Joe Glover - who get their knickers in a
knot over the gay daughter of the Vice President of the United States
joining her father on a victory stage - are giving the rest of us
mainstream live-and-let-live Christian conservatives the bad rap.

It’s not just the Democrats who need to reassess their “values.”

[I B Squidly]

My email to Mr. Lang:

"Ineptness" is a given when it comes to journalistic interpretations of anything military. A lack of background, perspective, or meaningful inquiry were all too obvious in this election cycle. Incompetence was the handmaiden of uncritical partisanship.

Each time Bush's records were cycled through the news he stood better revealed as concientious flying officer who diligently applied himself to the mastery of a difficult fighter aircraft, garnered substantial overtime in that pursuit and was well liked by his fellow officers. The plane he flew was on ready alert to intercept a Soviet bomber attack on the US or Europe, had no application in Viet Nam and was being withdrawn from service Bush's last year. With a year to go no competent authority would have wasted time teaching him to fly another craft. He was supergargo. "Easily obtainable facts" were batted aside from the extensive records available in a frenzy for dirt resulting in the collusion of CBS, Moveon.org and the DNC to perpetrate a fraud on '60 Minutes'. It deserved some mention in your review.

"an afternoon's read of (Kerry's) available Navy documents" reveal: most importantly that most is missing, there are four discharges on four different dates with curious references to an officer's review, there are three citations for a single award including a Silver Star with Valor that doesn't exist, and oddly all his awards are re-issued subsequent to his senate election. The fitness reports provided on Kerry's site are a hoot to anyone familiar with these things. They reveal among other things that he didn't qualify for ship navigation, didn't get along with his fellow man, got the 'clap', played prima donna, and always put his command aside for personal enthusiasms. He is much touted as an excellant 'Public Affairs Officer' but in context this like saying he was a screen door on a submarine.

"an afternoon's read of available Navy documents" raises more questions than answers and does nothing to refute SBVFT. "Campaign reporters unquestioningly passed along falsehoods." They cerainly did and that was, "the charges leveled by the SBVFT were unfounded". You noted that Kerry promised to reveal all his records on Russert but failed to notice that even in the last week he told Brokaw his records were not public. Kerry never refuted the Swifties because he couldn't. If his records held exoneration and not more derogatory revelations he would have used them. Instead he attacked their first amendment rights (not libel or defamation) and loosed the Larry Odonnell, Terry McAuliffe, Carville attack dogs. "The press did its best to insert fact back into the record" and they did that by screaming 'liar' to the exclusion of rational discourse. In the final week CBS, NYT, and the DNC conspired with dubious UN gossip about missing explosives to suffocate the revelations of communist coordination in Kerry's VVAW newly emerging from the Viet Nam Archives at Texas Tech.

"A campaign overrun with lies" is sure to follow from any participation by the DNC. From them any fatuous claim is meaningful, wild ad hominems are truisms; against them statements of fact are attacks and raional observations are smears.

I read the blythe 'Newspeak' of your "Report Card" and wonder if Columbia might do well to rename your institution a School of Public Mendacity. You might not understand the significance but an unsuspecting public should know how to qualify your product.

Anytime,

Larry.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Wow, Larry, I wish I'd read yours before I wrote mine!

I thought I was doing pretty well, but you make me look like a piker!

Well done!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[BelleC]

Subj: Swift Vets and POWs For Truth
Date: 11/15/2004 12:08:28 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Bellecastle1
To: tl2149@Columbia.edu



Dear Mr. Lang:

It is with no small amount of sadness that I write this letter to you. That your article comes from the Colombia Journalism Review is astounding and your facts are not! Senator Kerry has not signed Form 180 that would subsequently release all of his records with the US Navy. Why does that element of truth escape a reasonable impartial journalist like yourself? Has it occurred to you that Senator Kerry did not respond to the Swift Vets and POW's for Truth because what they are saying is the truth?

Do you ever wonder why Senator Kerry did not confront the Swift Veterans and POW's For Truth? It would have been easy enough.

Ever wonder even if he regretted his harsh words in 1971 why he did not say to his fellow Veterans "I am so sorry, I was young, I was disenchanted, I was wrong?

Does it occur to you that few journalists living on the left side of the recent election afforded the Swift Veterans and POW's for Truth enough attention to find the truth? And, does that bother you that you have lost your way as a journalist because you will not allow yourself to see the information screaming to be noticed?

Sad, you are. Journalist you are not. Teacher you can't be.

Belle
_________________
Belle

[PhantomSgt]

I think I have it figured out. Young liberal journalists in the MSM of today are the products of hippie mothers who abused drugs or maybe they did the drugs and fried their brains (Remember Nancy’s commercial?). Their standard Mantra is "The Truth is what I say it is".

Fact checking and source checking are too demanding for these quote "Journalists".

On the other hand celebrity News Readers are just that, news readers. The only story Dan, Tom or Pete will write will be their memoirs. Maybe?
_________________
Retired AF E-8

Independent that leans right of center.

[USAFE5]

[quote="On the other hand celebrity News Readers are just that, news readers. The only story Dan, Tom or Pete will write will be their memoirs. Maybe?[/quote]

Only if they use ghost writers ..
_________________
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I’m here to help." Ronald Reagan

[The Balloon Artist]

[mach9]

[happyday]

[Bernard Cullen]

From: Bernard Cullen
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 9:41 AM
To: 'tl2149@Columbia.edu'
Subject: Still Ambivalent After All These Years
Mr. Lang

I agree with your general contention that the media was woefully inept in fulfilling one of its fundamental functions: fact-checking. However, I beg to differ on your interpretation of extant Navy documents covering Kerry's time in Vietnam. Any careful reading of Brinkley's book based on his access to Kerry's personal documents indicates that there are many open questions and questionable "facts" concerning Kerry's representation of his time in Vietnam and anti-war activities.

The most obvious point, but one you seem to completely omit from this piece, is Kerry's failure to sign his Standard Form 180. Subsequent analysis of other Navy documents suggests that there may have been a major reason for Kerry avoiding anything like a full disclosure, namely, a less than honorable discharge because of his activities while still a Naval officer. Kerry's decision not to sign his Standard Form 180 left him open to many charges based on not unreasonable interpretations of the limited available "facts" by those who has also been in Vietnam and had served in the same units and had first hand observations of events covered by the Navy documents, Brinkley's books and Kerry's rendition of the "facts".

What is astounding is that major media did not explore any of this - certainly with nothing like the energy with which they pursued Bush's service record. To my knowledge there has been no serious exploration of Kerry's records outside of the potentially biased Swift Vets. Their level of research, investigation and, yes, fact checking far surpassed anything undertaken by media institutions with far more resources - after all we are talking about someone who was potentially the next POTUS.

At a certain point someone has to step forward and say that the Emperor (the Media) is not wearing any clothes. The media has been inept and one-sided and will continue to be so until real and complete "fact checking" is again a primary consideration of the journalism profession.

Respectfully,

Bernard J Cullen

[Mother]

Oorah!

[mach9]

Media bias isn't a new phenomenon. My father used to be able to predict NYT editorials down to the paragraph. (Why do you suppose Joseph McCarthy was censured? And, btw, communism wasn't his only "phobia"; he was the original "bring our POWs home" [from Korea] advocate.) Iran-Contra? Suppose that was covered by a fair, free press? Clinton's impeachment? Watergate? The intended consequences of Woodward & Bernstein's "accomplishments" were killing the story the so-called burglars were after--foreign money to Democrats, the demonization of the Republican Party (for 6-odd years), and--but most importantly--legitimizing the anti-war movement, effects of which may only now be crumbling.

Stories by MSM are pursued strategically, not just tactically. Happily, they're no longer the only game in town.

[tiptie]