SwiftVets.com

[integritycounts]

Summarized Version of NY Times 8/20 Page 1 Swift-vet Story

Major point #1. Many people seem to know people who have done things with others in the past both in Texas, Washington DC, and the Veterans themselves. The article goes into great detail contemplating its navel, and the wonders of that whole 6 degrees of separation thing. The article is very concerned that people who may know people, may do things independently of each other.

Major Point #2. Veterans of Vietnam tend to be very upset about what Kerry did after Vietnam.

Major Point #3 The accounts of the Swift-boat Veterans and Kerry do not match and the NY Times has nothing new to add to these disputes.
The NY Times was aware that Kerry was definitively shown to be a liar about Cambodia in Christmas, but article did not have the intellectual honesty to actually say it.

And with all that settled the article concludes.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Summary of the Summary= Uninspired author biased agenda-journalism.

[Jim]

To help, here's the full text of page One and a link...the article is several pages long

Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad
By KATE ZERNIKE and JIM RUTENBERG

Published: August 20, 2004


After weeks of taking fire over veterans' accusations that he had lied about his Vietnam service record to win medals and build a political career, Senator John Kerry shot back yesterday, calling those statements categorically false and branding the people behind them tools of the Bush campaign.

His decision to take on the group directly was a measure of how the group that calls itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has catapulted itself to the forefront of the presidential campaign. It has advanced its cause in a book, in a television advertisement and on cable news and talk radio shows, all in an attempt to discredit Mr. Kerry's war record, a pillar of his campaign.

How the group came into existence is a story of how veterans with longstanding anger about Mr. Kerry's antiwar statements in the early 1970's allied themselves with Texas Republicans.

Mr. Kerry called them "a front for the Bush campaign" - a charge the campaign denied.

A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove.

Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family - one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush's father's presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice. And the group's television commercial was produced by the same team that made the devastating ad mocking Michael S. Dukakis in an oversized tank helmet when he and Mr. Bush's father faced off in the 1988 presidential election.

The strategy the veterans devised would ultimately paint John Kerry the war hero as John Kerry the "baby killer" and the fabricator of the events that resulted in his war medals. But on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' prove to be riddled with inconsistencies. In many cases, material offered as proof by these veterans is undercut by official Navy records and the men's own statements.

Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry "unfit" had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year.

In an unpublished interview in March 2003 with Mr. Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, provided by Mr. Brinkley to The New York Times, Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry's antiwar positions but said, "I am not going to say anything negative about him." He added, "He's a good man."

In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in June 2003, Mr. Hoffmann approvingly recalled the actions that led to Mr. Kerry's Silver Star: "It took guts, and I admire that."

George Elliott, one of the Vietnam veterans in the group, flew from his home in Delaware to Boston in 1996 to stand up for Mr. Kerry during a tough re-election fight, declaring at a news conference that the action that won Mr. Kerry a Silver Star was "an act of courage." At that same event, Adrian L. Lonsdale, another Vietnam veteran now speaking out against Mr. Kerry, supported him with a statement about the "bravado and courage of the young officers that ran the Swift boats."

"Senator Kerry was no exception," Mr. Lonsdale told the reporters and cameras assembled at the Charlestown Navy Yard. "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers."

Those comments echoed the official record. In an evaluation of Mr. Kerry in 1969, Mr. Elliott, who was one of his commanders, ranked him as "not exceeded" in 11 categories, including moral courage, judgment and decisiveness, and "one of the top few" - the second-highest distinction - in the remaining five. In written comments, he called Mr. Kerry "unsurpassed," "beyond reproach" and "the acknowledged leader in his peer group."

The Admiral Calls

It all began last winter, as Mr. Kerry was wrapping up the Democratic nomination. Mr. Lonsdale received a call at his Massachusetts home from his old commander in Vietnam, Mr. Hoffmann, asking if he had seen the new biography of the man who would be president.

Mr. Hoffmann had commanded the Swift boats during the war from a base in Cam Ranh Bay and advocated a search-and-destroy campaign against the Vietcong - the kind of tactic Mr. Kerry criticized when he was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971. Shortly after leaving the Navy in 1978, he was issued a letter of censure for exercising undue influence on cases in the military justice system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?ex=1250654400&en=8afa4fded4046b86&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

[integritycounts]

thanks

[republicanveteran]

I would read it, but I have a self imposed ban on the NYT. WAPO, NBC.ABC,CBS,CNN, and now Hardball...

[GuitarJon]

second that. Chris Matthews should be ashamed of himself.

Will Moveon.org get the same treatment? I think not.. they get a free ride.
_________________
United States of America, The greatest country on Earth!!

[joehere]

I was just curious how people feel about today's NYT article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?th

[integritycounts]

Joehere this is what I think


Summarized Version of NY Times 8/20 Page 1 Swift-vet Story

Major point #1. Many people seem to know people who have done things with others in the past both in Texas, Washington DC, and the Veterans themselves. The article goes into great detail contemplating its navel, and the wonders of that whole 6 degrees of separation thing. The article is very concerned that people who may know people, may do things independently of each other.

Major Point #2. Veterans of Vietnam tend to be very upset about what Kerry did after Vietnam.

Major Point #3 The accounts of the Swift-boat Veterans and Kerry do not match and the NY Times has nothing new to add to these disputes.
The NY Times was aware that Kerry was definitively shown to be a liar about Cambodia in Christmas, but article did not have the intellectual honesty to actually say it.

And with all that settled the article concludes.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Summary of the Summary= Uninspired author biased agenda-journalism


Its the kind of front page that talks about the obvious and does not do anything to assess or comprehend the things that are at odds with each other. Its professional fluff....but nevertheless Fluff.

[Redview]

It is very difficult to understand how someone employed to

interview guests about certain topics, would still be employed if

they had not even studied the topic to be discussed.

They pay this guy a salary?

Who couldn't just scream and yell over someone.

Bet I could do it even better for 1/10 what he makes.