Spin, hell. They're out right editing and rewording Kerry's comments! It's unbelievable! This reporter is acting like he (or she) is the Kerry Campaign's communications director. For instance:
Kerry on Friday questioned Republicans who avoided the war and now criticize him on national security, but he didn't mention Bush."I fought under that flag and I saw that flag draped over the coffins of friends," Kerry said. "I'm tired of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and a bunch of people who went out of their way to avoid the chance to serve when they had the chance."
I don't have the exact quote at hand from another source for comparison, but I *think* words may have actually been left out within the quotation marks. In any case I remember hearing Kerry's comment well enough to know that the reporter has absolutely changed the sense of it with his introductory sentence.
Kerry was most definitely NOT complaining about criticism of his position(s) on "national security". That may be what the reporter thinks Kerry should have said, but it's nothing like what Kerry did say.
Kerry complained in plain English (or as plain as his English ever gets anyway) about Republicans in the Bush administration/campaign attacking his patriotism.
Bear in mind that the distinction has been frequently drawn by pundits and campaigners on both sides between attacking a person's record or policy on the one hand, and attacking a person's patriotism (or engaging in some other personal, ad hominem attack) on the other. Kerry's comments quite unambiguously fell on one side of that dichotomy (in so far as what he was accusing Republicans of doing) and the reporter, on his/her own initiative, just picked them up and moved them to the other side of the dichotomy!!!
Apparently this reporter knows that on one (in the Bush administration/campaign) has attacked Kerry's "patriotism." The reporter is sufficiently embarrassed for Kerry, so it would seem, that he/she has actually corrected Kerry (in surreptitious, Orwellian fashion by editing the historical record). Either that or the reporter is massively incompetent, yet this report is full of such covering for Kerry gaffes/exaggerations/misstatements.