The usual Steyn brilliance; this time his scalpel is applied to MSM ever so deftly and accurately.
The SBVets are a politically motivated group. Astounding. This is the year when we elect the president for the next 4 years. How dare any of us have a political motivation. Of course they are politically motivated. Whether they are dems or pubbies or neither, they do not believe Kerry is fit to be president, so they entered into the political fray to deny him that position. Where, pray tell, is the problem with that?
"Mainstream Media Covers Up Kerry's Lies!"
I'm really not surprised.
ROFLOL! Spot on, Mark, as usual.
Let us stipulate that the snoots at the Times are right – that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are a "Republican-financed group of partisans." Just as the handful of Swift boat veterans prepared to support John Kerry are a Democrat-financed group of partisans. After all, it seems unlikely that they're picking up their own hotel bills and air fares as they travel around the country as his loyal, if small, "band of brothers."So both groups are "politically motivated." Good for them. That's what multi-party democracy is all about. The New York Times and CBS News are also "politically motivated." So is this column. It's a political column, and it's "politically motivated." One day I'll start a ballet column, and that will be balletically motivated.
So now that we've got all the preening patrician media snobbery out of the way, would it be too much to expect so-called political journalists to investigate Kerry's Cambodian stories? You know, the way they did when the comparatively minor question arose of whether Bush was AWOL from his National Guard base three decades ago. Boy, The New York Times loved that one:
February 4: "Military Service Becomes Issue in Bush-Kerry Race"
February 11: "The President's Guard Service"
February 13: "Seeking Memories of Bush at an Alabama Air Base"
February 15: "Still the Question: What Did You Do in the War?"
As the Times put it, "Mr. Bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from Iraq."
Well, the other feller made his military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling Swift Boat lieutenant to the exclusion of the other 59 years and eight months of his life. The story now is not John Kerry's weird secret-agent fantasies but the media's willingness to act as elite guardians of them. They're his real "band of brothers," happy to fish him out of their water, even if their credibility sinks in the process.
Steyn knocks another one over the fence!
Lay aside for a moment the small portion of the book that is being disputed by the Democrats and the media and focus on what nobody can deny or has even attempted to....
• All three of John Kerry’s Purple Hearts were for minor injuries, easily treated with band-aids, not requiring a single hour of hospitalization.
• John Kerry’s false testimony – before the United States Senate – about alleged American war crimes was played on loud speakers to POW's and that many were totured to force them to sign documents confessing to these war crimes.
• John Kerry carried a typewriter and an 8-mm home movie camera with him to Vietnam so he could record his own exaggerated version of his war exploits and film staged reenactments of his “combat actions” to advance his political career.
• John Kerry photograph hangs in a place of honor in the Vietnamese Communist “war Remnants Museum” in Ho Chi Minh City.
Don't pander to the knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, Mark.
"...would it be too much to expect so-called political journalists to investigate Kerry's Cambodian stories?"
Yes. They are incapable of rising above their primative level of functioning, and we've already established that these so-called "journalists" are political hacks interested in producing propaganda.
"They're his real 'band of brothers,' happy to fish him out of their water, even if their credibility sinks in the process."
It's already sunk, Mark. A long time ago.
ping
The media is the enemy.
Agree....he nails it so well. His vision is unbelievable.