Kerry and the Press--Perfect Together

The Democrat candidate for President is an admitted liar. But more astonishing than Kerry's "Once upon a time in Cambodia" fairy-tale is that the major media remains mum. Instapundit found zip in the NY Times and Washington Post. So far, only the U.K.'s Telegraph has covered the scandal, which includes this helpful comparison.



VodkaPundit asks "If A Candidate Lies About Cambodia, But Nobody Reports It, Did It Actually Happen?" Apparently not. After all, printing the truth would inhibit cheerleading for Kerry, as Evan Thomas --Newsweek's liberal Assistant Managing Editor -- admitted,

The media, I think, wants Kerry to win and I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards [--]I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox [--] They're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and there's going to be this glow about them, collective glow, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points.

So I shouldn't have been surprised that today's WaPo brands the serious allegations by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth a "Smear." Such logic depends on deliberate disregard of Kerry's repeated (and now acknowledged) lies about Cambodia. Today's Post editorial is the new poster child for "hear no evil; speak no evil" press coverage of Democrats.

But wait, there's more! Not satisfied with misleading by omission, the WaPo's Op-Ed flat-out fibs in finding the Swifties claims are "contradicted by Mr. Kerry's crew mates." Yet, as discussed yesterday:

At least three of the five crewmen on Kerry's PCF 44 boat--Bill Zaldonis, Steven Hatch, and Steve Gardner--deny that they or their boat were ever in Cambodia. The remaining two crewmen declined to be interviewed for this book. Gardner, in particular, will never forget those days in late December when he was wounded on PCF 44, not in Cambodia, but many miles away in Vietnam

Further, only 1 of 23 Swiftboat officers in Kerry's unit support Kerry. As Donald Sensing says, "Some explaining is definitely due."

There's a simple solution says Thomas Lipscome:

[I]t is time for the press to look into the charges brought by the Swiftvets. The Swiftvets have depositions, phone numbers, on the record statements, and for all of the innuendo from the Kerry apparatchiks, not one of the Swiftvets has enjoyed a fancy hotel room paid for by the Bush campaign, much less gone on a campaign tour with the candidate.

Still, the media probably won't budge, as VodkaPundit suggests:

Yo, Media: Your candidate has apparently lied, repeatedly, over the last 30 years. He did so to embellish his credentials, and in the pursuit of various political ends. His campaign is putting out false spin that doesn't pass the laugh test. Does this say anything at all about his fitness for higher office?
Aren't you interested?

I am. But the NY Times, Post, Chronicle, Globe, etc., aren't. Which, Doug Payton observes, leaves

The network news viewer and the NY Times/WaPo readers . . . pretty much unaware of the "substantial conversation going on outside of the major media."

Journalism's apparently atrophied at newspapers and networks. Rather, Payton concludes, Americans get "Spin control at it's finest, courtesy of that liberal media."

Hence blogs. And these eager, if amateur, essays.