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http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2004/0827.asp

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Still Ignoring Kerry's "Christmas In Cambodia"

Jim Rutenberg and Kate Zernike are still on the trail of the Swift Boat Veterans in Friday's "Bush Says He Will Back McCain on Ad Crackdown."

From the start the Times has assumed the Swift Boat charges are dubious (quite a difference from the respectful hearing it gave to critics of Bush's National Guard duty: "The Swift boat veterans, whose most serious charges have been contradicted by official records, some of their own past statements and a number of witnesses, got most of their initial money from Texans supportive of the president."

The Times again insists this could be a good issue for Kerry: "Some Republican advisers have privately acknowledged that they would just as soon see the issue die down as the president heads into his convention. There were no signs yesterday that that was going to happen. The Swift boat group released a new Internet advertisement, again calling Mr. Kerry a liar. And across the country, even some Republicans seemed to want to keep the issue alive, with reports of overlap between local party committees and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Several county Republican parties from New Hampshire to California were directing visitors to their Web sites to the Swift boat veterans' site, a fact the Kerry campaign cited as more evidence of collusion."

They conclude: "Mr. Kerry was asked at a forum in Anoka, Minn., about the attacks on his war record. 'All the guys who were with me on my boat, all the guys who were with me in the specific action where they could see it and know it, absolutely document what I said,' he told the questioner."

Apparently the Times didn't pay sufficient attention to the new Swift Boat ad they mention (which also did more than simply "call Kerry a liar"), because it stands as a contradiction to Kerry's closing claim. The ad features Steve Gardner--a foregunner on Kerry's boat, saying: "John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas in 1968 in Cambodia and that is categorically a lie."

That renders Kerry's claim that "all the guys who were with me on my boat…document what I said" untrue.

This story is the latest example of the Times' non-coverage of Kerry's now-discredited "Christmas in Cambodia" claims.

For the rest of Rutenberg and Zernike on Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans, click here.

• Cambodia | Campaign 2004 | Gaffes | Sen. John Kerry | MoveOn.org | Jim Rutenberg | Swift Boat Veterans | Vietnam | Kate Zernike



Bush Bugs Times By Not Bashing Swift Boat Ads


Bush gives a sit-down interview to David Sanger and Elisabeth Bumiller in an unusual venue--under a stadium after a campaign rally in Farmington, New Mexico. The front-page story, "Bush Dismisses Idea That Kerry Lied On Vietnam--But Doesn’t Criticize Ad," touches on foreign policy from Iraq to North Korea, but of course focuses on Bush's response to the Swift Boat allegations against Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service: "President Bush said on Thursday that he did not believe Senator John Kerry lied about his war record, but he declined to condemn the television commercial paid for by a veterans group alleging that Mr. Kerry came by his war medals dishonestly. Mr. Bush's comments, in a half-hour interview with The New York Times, undercut a central accusation leveled by the veterans group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose unproven attacks on Mr. Kerry have dominated the political debate for more than two weeks."

Of course, since the Bush campaign is legally barred from coordinating with the Swifties, nothing he says can "undercut" their claims anyway.

Bush's statement wasn't enough for Sanger and Bumiller, who pushed Bush to specifically denounce the ads and who seem bugged when Bush refused: "Mr. Bush did not hesitate when asked about the central charge issued by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the veterans' group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's record in Vietnam. 'I think Senator Kerry should be proud of his record,'' Mr. Bush said. 'No, I don't think he lied.' But when pressed repeatedly if he would specifically denounce the advertisements, which Mr. Kerry has said were being run with the tacit approval of the Bush campaign, the president refused to condemn then [sic]. Instead, he said he would talk only of the 'broader issue' of the political committees that take to the airwaves with attack advertisements. 'Five twenty-sevens--I think these ought to be outlawed,' he said. 'I think they should have been outlawed a year ago. We have billionaires writing checks, large checks, to influence the outcome of the election.'"

The reporters don't bring up the name of George Soros, Bush's likely "billionaire," or MoveOn.org or America Coming Together, two of the biggest liberal 527 groups, which Soros has helped fund and which in all have thrown over $60 million into ad campaigns to defeat Bush, dwarfing the approximately $1.5 million spent so far by the Swift Boat Veterans.
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Everytime he had a choice, Kerry chose to side with communists rather than the United States.