To: Speakout@Fox News.com
As one who worked for several years to help get Fox News added to our south Jersey cable channel, I am especially disappointed and disgusted with the quality of coverage you have given to the Swift Boat Veterans this week. I would have expected that Fox might have wanted to scoop other news organizations by having several of these vets on to expand on their views, and maybe knock heads with some representatives of the Kerry camp on the issues. Instead we have gotten cursory factual coverage of the story, and much insulting "analysis" from your "personalities". The smug Charles Krauthammer called their ad "stupid". Of course, pusillanimous Krauthammer has been seen in the past rolling rapidly in the other direction when conservatives have tried to stand up assertively to liberals, and it could be that he simply found it safer to dismiss the vets' claims with the childish "stupid" than to give them serious consideration and maybe find himself in a brouhaha with libs. Smarmy Shep Smith called the Swiftvets "liars" because they claim to have served with Kerry. In fact most of the few vets who are supporting Kerry served under his command. Those opposing him (over 250 men) worked in command positions beside him and as his superiors; they are the very people charged by the Navy to officially evaluate and rate Kerry's performance, who better to tell us how he really did in Vietnam. Pompous Bill O'Reilly called the vets' ad "immoral" This is a bizarre notion to be sure - these men who are spending their own money to publish what they agree is the "truth" about Kerry's war record are branded as "immoral" by the man who is forever prattling about how much he abhors "spin". The final straw was last night when the usually reliable Jim Angle reported on the story in the "Boston Globe" which claimed that one of the Swiftvets had recanted his assertions in the ad. A more capable reporter would have known that the "Globe" story was a lie (written, by the way, by a "reporter" who was also being paid to write an official chronicle of the Kerry campaign), that the vet involved had hours earlier issued a statement saying that his comments were totally misrepresented in the "Globe" and that he stood by his original affidavit without qualification. Fox News' disinformation and hostility on this story is appalling. Perhaps it's primarily a matter of sycophants trying to brown nose their big boss, Peter Chernin, who turns out to be a major contributor to the Kerry campaign. Maybe it's more sinister - Mr. Chernin pressuring his reporters to come around to journalistic views more sympathetic to his choice for president. Or perhaps it's simply that you've decided to cave to pressure from that bunch of congressional Democrats, pressure which would have been condemned far and wide as attempted censorship had it come from Republicans but is apparently accepted as business as usual since it comes from the other side of the aisle. Whatever the case, know this: there are many routes to the news these days, especially through the internet. Those who so enthusiastically helped Fox to the top of the heap in cable news can be just as enthusiastic in helping you back to the bottom if we become convinced that you have joined the rest of the media in presenting the news through the astigmatic lens of the left. Unhappily, that time seems to be almost upon us.
Dr. xxx xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx, N.J.
Well done. Kudos! I have "turned the corner [on Fox] and there's no turning back". It is so obvious that they are getting order from headquarters and will help Kerry win this election. I am truly sickened by their "new" position and find it utterly appalling.
Bravo! Direct hit!