Buchannan says CBS should've covered the real story: Swift Boat Vets

[stray cat]

[e-mail]

My letter in response


On Hardblogger January 10, Patrick Buchannan publicly stated that CBS should have been following the real journalistic story of the Swift Boat veterans instead of an old story about President Bush. Get real!

CBS screwed up on a story whose basis we all know is probably true. No one got into the National Guard that quickly at that point during the Vietnam War without some strings being pulled. Nevertheless, CBS was wrong.

However, partisan hacks with no journalistic integrity should not be the guests on a show that discusses journalism intergrity. I turned your show to the Daily Show because it admits it does fake news.

Right wing media hacks such as Patrick Bucannan and Fox news and Hardball went insane interviewing the debunked Swiftboat Veterans funded by the Republicans. They sensationalized a story with no proven basis in fact. These media participants may or may not have been directly payed by the republicans but their blatant bias was unprofessional for anyone who professes to be a journalist.

[okieinpain]

1. that would have called for investigative journalism. now we can't

have that can we.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Buchanan was part of the Nixon Administration so he always reverted

to a vicious attack dog whenever anything about Kerry and Vietnam came up during the campaign. He went straight back to 1971 himself.

It was disgusting but he had a hell of a lot of company too.

[LittleClarkie]

12. It would have been fine if CBS had covered the Smear vets

if they debunked the hell out of them. But I guess that's not what Pat was saying.

Was he saying he thought the Smear vets were "truthful?"

[Pirate Smile]

24. Oh, yes, he bought it all. He kept spouting crap that had already been

discredited.

Well, he bought it or he wanted everyone else too because of the grudge he had against Kerry for challenging the Nixon Administration. He was still fighting the Vietnam War.

[LittleClarkie]

25. Even Nixon was able to put that behind him

I still love the picture of Nixon and Kerry shaking hands.

And I love the quote from Nixon that Hunter S. quoted about the only way to stop war being to take the profit out of it.

Tricky wasn't so bad when he wasn't in office.

[Vinca]

3. The Swifties were liars.

Wasn't that proven time and time again? Maybe Buchanan meant CBS should have investigated the authenticity of their claims. Not defending Pat Buchanan, but every once in awhile he's on the right track. (Then, sadly, he always veers off again.)

[stray cat]

7. I wish. I listened long enough - Buchannan really bought their story

He thought they got a raw deal from the media. I think he drank the Koolaid.

[LittleClarkie]

15. The Swift Vets who got a raw deal were Kerry's band of brothers

They all but dropped off the radar as soon as O'Neill and Co. arrived.

I thought O'Neill and Co. were everywhere for a while. They weren't at a loss for coverage. The problem with them was that if you disagreed, they seemed to think you just hadn't heard them properly.

Chris Matthew's first interview with O'Neill was the best. His comment that O'Neill had been on the show for 20 minutes talking and then claimed he wasn't being heard was great. They seemed to think they could waltz onto a show, present their "information", have the interviewer say thank you, and then waltz off without any rebuttal or question as to what they were saying and how authentic it was.

Thanks Pat. Just when I think you talk sense, you talk out your butt again.

[BOSSHOG]

4. George Bush deserted his military unit

to avoid a drug test in the 70's. 30+ years later people are getting fired at CBS for investigating factual data. Bottom line, the right wing propaganda machine at work. It only succeeds because they know their audience; Ignorant white trash. Millionaires getting tax breaks don't give one flying dog fuck about bush's indiscretions; trash in the red states need to feel good about their president.

[Dora]

5. Yellowcake

I think the story they should have run was the one that they'd been working on all along and had ready to broadcast - the yellowcake forgeries paper trail.

It's not too late. If I recall correctly, CBS said they pulled it because it could have been perceived as trying to unduly influence the election. Well, that particular debacle has finished, so CBS ought to go ahead and run that yellowcake segment.

Effin' wussies. Cop outs. Cheaters - the lot of 'em.

[noamnety]

6. you motivated me to email them, too

Thanks for providing a link, makes it easy even for the lazy!

My email:

A memo CBS used as a background source was not fully vetted for authenticity, and people were fired.

The entire swiftboat story was not vetted, official military documents clearly contradicted their stories, they accepted contributions from PR firms that worked with Bush, they relied on hearsay for details of events they didn't witness, and their leader was clearly partisan with long ties to Bush, and had an ongoing political vendetta against John Kerry. When can we expect the MSNBC staff who were responsible for giving them air time to be investigated and held responsible?

Chris Matthews asked a question (which I noticed he made a point of repeating), if the story had been about John Kerry, would it have gotten as much scrutiny? The swift boat story provides the answer. If it had been about John Kerry, every station would have aired it nonstop for days without feeling the need to vet any of the information at all beforehand. Free airtime for any story that supports the Bush adminstration, whether or not it is proven to be true. Isn't that what happened?

The hypocrisy is astounding.

[stray cat]

8. Excellent. Thank you

Wolcott in "Attack Poodles" suggests we adopt a media pundit and aggressively fight to keep them honest by letting them know they are being critically evaluated. There is strenth in numbers - thanks for the support and nice letter.

[dolstein]

9. Pardon me, but this is bullshit

CBS reported documents as authentic even though they hadn't been authenticated. They blew it. Period.

[stray cat]

19. They did

However, do you really think Pat Buchanan and Fox News have earned the right to criticize any journalist for irresponsibility? They are on talk shows self righteously proclaiming how real journalists were pursuing the Swift Boat Vets for soft interviews. That is what I object to- hypocrisy!

[grasswire]

10. Buchanan today called the CBS snafu...

...a "criminal conspiracy" to depose a sitting president.

Well, bring it on, Patrick. Let's have depositions under oath. Let's bring charges and swear in Karl Rove. Shall we?

I look forward to such a clearing of the air.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

14. Even if anyone could get Karl Rove to give a

deposition under oath, do you really think he would tell the truth?

Karl Rove wouldn't know what the truth is..

He's a lying POS just like his boss.



:mad: :mad:

[Lefty48197]

11. The CBS memos were factually correct in content

That's what the secretary of the guy who was alleged to have written the documents said. She said (paraphrasing), "those documents may be forged, but the information in them is correct". That's the story that the corporate media won't cover.

[Botany]

13. The Rather memos and the swift boat both

have one thing in common. Creative Response Concepts. Ex media folk
who are whores for hire.

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Creative_Response_Concepts

http://www.crc4pr.com/

Check 'em out they plant stories for Rove and big businesses.

Call em up and ask to talk to the person in charge of the swift boat story.

The Boxer Rebellion can be fun.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. I just wish the MSM

had fact checked W's SOTU speech before we invaded Iraq as well as they checked these memos. I think purposely lying in the SOTU is a much more serious problem.

[dolstein]

17. What a bunch of hypocrites

If Fox had run a story claiming that Kerry was dishonorably discharged and the story was based on forged documents, DU'ers would be raising hell. But apparently it's ok to use forged documents against a Republican, right?

[Botany]

18. Those documents were plants

How could a blogger know they were fake. 2 hours after the story broke?
And without seeing them.

This was a Rove Job. Get people talking about Rather not AWOL bush.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

20. Botany, I agree with you.

Karl Rove learned his trade with the Nixon dirty tricks squad in the 1970's and he learned it very well.

[newblewtoo]

23. Yep, they did this too....

>clip

Kerry's Discharge Is Questioned by an Ex-JAG Officer
BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun
November 1, 2004

A former officer in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve has built a case that Senator Kerry was other than honorably discharged from the Navy by 1975, The New York Sun has learned.

The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in the office of the Secretary of the Navy between 1975 and

>clip

http://www.nysun.com/article/4040

eom

[w4rma]

21. They or ABC did. They went to Vietnam and talked to the Vietnamese who

were there. They shredded the Swift Boat Liars' claims.

But it was on Nightline or something and after midnight.

[ClovisPoint]

22. But cut Buchanan some slack-

I didn't see the Hardblogger piece, and no further comment is needed on the Swiftboat crap. However, I am amazed to find myself saying that, on other more substantial issues, Pat Buchanan is making a fair amount of sense of late. I can provide some (probably dried out) links and/or text, which indicate (1) he is nauseated by Bush AND the neocon weasels; (2) he is against the entire Iraq boodoggle; and, (3) he is against the Amerikan Empire concept in general.