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TV Ends Blackout of Swift Vets,
Starts Helping Kerry's Attacks
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004 
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The so-called mainstream media never admit their liberal tilt, so the Media Research Center tirelessly documents their bias. Since the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth outlined their anti-Kerry charges in May, the broadcast networks had practically ignored the group. But that changed last Thursday after Kerry himself attacked the group, and reporters followed suit:
» Don't Trust Nixon's Point Man.
On Thursday's CBS Evening
News, reporter Byron Pitts tried to discredit all 254 anti-Kerry veterans by linking one with Richard Nixon: "The men behind the Swift Boat Veterans' ad refused to back off. Their leader, John O'Neill, was also Richard Nixon's point man in attacks on John Kerry's protest of the Vietnam War 30 years ago."
• For more, see the
August 20 CyberAlert.
» Onus on Bush, Not Kerry.
Although Kerry's campaign has backed off parts of his Vietnam story — like his Christmas in Cambodia — and he still won't release all of his military records, the networks zeroed in on Bush's hands-off approach. "Even Republican Senator John McCain has called on the President to condemn this ad. Why hasn't he done so?" ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas whined to reporter Terry Moran on Thursday's
World News Tonight.
• For more, see the
August 20 CyberAlert.
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» Suddenly, Focusing on Vietnam is Childish.
On CNN's NewsNight, fill-in anchor Daryn Kagan disparaged the dispute over whether Kerry has been truthful about his past service as "kindergarten politics," adopting a whiny, childish voice: "‘You did this in Vietnam,' ‘No, I didn't.'" But back on Memorial Day, four weeks after the Swift Vets publicly challenged the tales of Kerry's heroics,
NewsNight aired a glowing, four-minute long tribute to Kerry's Vietnam service. For that puff piece, Aaron Brown ignored the critics, quoting only vets who had signed on to Kerry's campaign.
NewsNight's first story on the anti-Kerry vets came August 17, nearly 100 days after the Swift Vets' first press conference.
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CNN's Daryn Kagan called the dispute over Kerry's honesty "kindergarten politics" |
• For more, see the
June 2 CyberAlert.
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