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Turnabout not Fair Play for "Stolen Honor"
Delco (Daily) Times ^ | 10/24/04 | Gil Spencer


Turnabout not fair play for ‘Stolen Honor’

10/24/2004

Does anyone else find it interesting that when Michael Moore’s hit job on President George Bush, "Fahrenheit 9/11," was shown at the Media Theater a couple months back, the showing went off without a hitch? Hundreds of Bush-hating Moore fans were able to pay their money and enter the theater, which had been rented by the Media Film Festival.

They were able to laugh, boo, cheer and cry and have their political views reinforced. A select few might have watched the film with a critical eye, knowing Mr. Moore’s reputation for selective editing and truth shading. But most went to see the film to enjoy having their prejudices reinforced.

In any case, no protesters showed up to block the entrances to the theater, to scream at the moviegoers or in any other way prevent them from seeing the film.

Now, contrast this to how a showing of the anti-John Kerry film "Stolen Honor" was recently treated in Jenkintown.

Stolen Honor is a documentary about the experiences of U.S. POWs in Vietnam. The 17 men interviewed for the film believe that John Kerry’s strident anti-war activities after he returned from his four-month tour of duty contributed to their ill treatment by their communist captors.

They believe John Kerry broke faith with them when he testified before Congress that he and his fellow soldiers routinely committed atrocities against the Vietnamese people during that conflict. Lt. Kerry told the world that rape, decapitation and torture were standard operating procedure, and approved of up and down the chain of U.S. military command during that criminal war.

The brave men interviewed for this film take strong issue with the ugly portrait John Kerry painted of Vietnam veterans back then and the myth that has persisted in America about their service since.

This film is not flattering to Mr. Kerry in the least, any more than "Fahrenheit 9/11" is flattering to George Bush. And if it were shown broadly in Pennsylvania, Sen. Kerry’s chances of winning this important battleground state would be sharply reduced. And so, what happened in Jenkintown.

For those of you who don’t know, the film was never shown.

Thuggish pro-Kerry "protesters" showed up at the urging of the Kerry campaign. Police had to be called to the scene to keep order. A lawsuit was threatened against the theater by one of Sen. Kerry’s anti-war activist friends, who claim the film defames him.

This was no spontaneous reaction. It was orchestrated by Kerry’s Pennsylvania campaign coordinator, Tony Podesta.

In an Oct. 15 e-mail to Kerry supporters, Podesta trashed "Stolen Honor," calling the man who made it, decorated Vietnam veteran Carlton Sherwood, a "disgraced former journalist, right-wing propagandist and apologist for cult-leader Sun Myung Moon." (He leaves out Mr. Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prize.)

"Please take action to fight back against this garbage," Podesta begs his fellow Kerry supporters. "Politely let the theater know that, as a member of the community, you object to the screening of this film and that they should not allow ‘Stolen Honor’ to be shown on their screen."

Helpfully, Mr. Podesta included the theater manager’s home phone number for Kerry supporters to "politely" express their "concern."

"Stay tuned for information on protests against the film at the theater."

As we all know now, Mr. Podesta’s efforts were successful in keeping the film from being shown. Some things, to some Democrats, are more important than the free expression of ideas and points of view.

When "Fahrenheit 9/11" was scheduled to be shown in Media, I called the organizer of the Media Film Festival, Frank Daly, and asked why he chose to include a film that had already (and recently) been shown in the area and had such a partisan bent.

Independently, some businessmen in the borough decided to withhold their financial support of the festival because of its partisanship.

But no one that I’m aware of suggested the showing of the film be aggressively protested, with the hope of preventing it from being shown.

Imagine if the Bush campaign coordinator for Pennsylvania had encouraged GOP stalwarts to show up in Media to prevent the screening. The screams of censorship from the Left would have been bloodcurdling.

Mr. Podesta claims second thoughts about his rallying cry in his Oct. 15 memo.

"I would not urge anyone to take action to deny the rights of anyone to express their opinions or hear contrary views."

Oh, yes he would. And he did.

"Stolen Honor" is the movie that the Kerry campaign doesn’t want you to see. And for good reason. The men interviewed for this film cannot be dismissed as partisan hacks, liars and gutter dwellers. Two of them won the Congressional Medal of Honor and the others were awarded more medals than John Kerry could throw away in a month.

Their stories deserve to be heard.

Gil Spencer’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at gspencer@delcotimes.com.

©The Daily Times 2004