Media still lying about the Swift Boat Veterans

[cwo_ghwebb]

Five years ago, a group of Vietnam veterans came forward at the National Press Club in Washington to dispute the "war hero" stories that formed the basis of candidate John Kerry's presidential campaign, and to challenge the claims of rampant US war crimes Kerry had used to launch his political career 33 years earlier -- false accusations, they said, that helped to poison the reputations of a generation of American troops. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth included Kerry's entire former chain of command from Vietnam and dozens of eyewitnesses to his actions there. Kerry, the veterans said, was not fit to be America's Commander-in-Chief

The Swift Vets intended to hold a single press conference and go home, thinking that Kerry would quickly be withdrawn as the nominee of his party. However, instead of reporting the veterans' charges accurately, the Democrat-dominated media either ignored or disparaged their testimony. In response, the Swift Vets planned and executed a remarkably effective end run to bypass the DNC media, presenting their case with the book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, the website SwiftVets.com (which I managed), a devastating TV ad campaign, and thousands of individual interviews, mostly on talk radio. In early August 2004, the multipronged effort paid off. Unfit for Command topped the best-seller lists and millions of dollars in donations flooded into SwiftVets.com. The TV ads, as reporter Bill Sammon would later write, were "transfixing" the country. Polls showed that the veterans were perceived as highly credible. Kerry's support plummeted, especially among veterans, the families of veterans and independent voters.

/snip

Shortly after the election, the DNC media began using the term "swift boating" as a shorthand reference for supposedly dishonest political criticism - but only for criticism targeting Democrats or Democratic initiatives. Like the earlier use of "McCarthyism," this sloganeering was intended to silence debate through repetition.

In 2004, the media had eagerly repeated the Kerry campaign's unsupported charge that the Swift Vets were really a secret Republican operation rather than an independent group. Kerry filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission demanding a complete investigation, and the FEC responded with a flurry of subpoenas followed by a forensic examination of the Swift Vets' records. I was ordered to turn over some 10,000 emails to the FEC, and I was only a website contractor. After two years of exhaustive investigation, the FEC finally concluded in December 2006 that the Swift Vets "did not unlawfully coordinate its activities" with any party or candidate. The media ignored the group's exoneration, focusing instead on the FEC's decision to fine the Swift Vets for forming as a "527" organization instead of as a political action committee.

One of John Kerry's key veteran supporters in 2004 was Wade Sanders, who helped to introduce the candidate at the Democratic National Convention and was mentioned as a candidate for Secretary of Defense. Sanders also acted as Kerry's lead attack dog against the Swift Vets, whom he repeatedly compared to Nazis.

Two weeks ago, Sanders was sentenced to 37 months in prison on child pornography charges. Rather than admit to wrongdoing, Sanders claimed that he had been doing "research." He blamed his obsessive interest in the subject on a flare-up of post-traumatic stress caused by -- you guessed it -- the Swift Vets. Alas, as James Taranto pointed out, Sanders' acquisition of child pornography began in 2003, before the Swift Vets even existed. The DNC media, including Kerry's troubled hometown Boston Globe, ignored Sanders conviction.

Imagine the media coverage if the offender had been someone like Swift Vet spokesman John O'Neill.

American Thinker: Media still lying about the Swift Boat Veterans

Honorable veterans dishonored by a dishonest press. Imagine that!

[ImnoMensa]

I am still waiting for the F-180 that John Kerry failed to sign.

John Kerry is a low life .

[cwo_ghwebb]

Originally Posted by ImnoMensa

I am still waiting for the F-180 that John Kerry failed to sign.

John Kerry is a low life .

Or Obama's SAT scores, or Obama's grades in college or Obama's writings as the "First Black President" of Harvard Law Review or ........ (fill in the blank)