Kerry records - Media Matters gets what MSM dont get

[Mass]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506070004

Boston Globe highlighted Kerry's Yale grades, buried key revelation about story that helped shape 2004 election

The Boston Globe used its front page on June 7 to highlight an article -- based on Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) newly released military and education records -- that emphasized Kerry's mediocre college grades. But the Globe buried a second article, which used the records to further discredit attacks on Kerry's military service that occurred during the 2004 presidential campaign, on an inside page. While attacks on Kerry's service had already been largely discredited, the revelation that his full military records provide no new information about his service definitively proved the baselessness of smears by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth).

The Globe's article about Kerry's grades at Yale University -- which found that Kerry's academic performance was "on par" with President Bush's -- ran on the Globe's front page (A1). The report that Kerry's decision to sign Standard Form 180, and thereby fully release his military records, provided a "lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career," ran on Page A7. The demand that Kerry sign the form, even though many of these military records were posted on Kerry's campaign website, was a point of attack by right-wing pundits who besmirched his service during the 2004 campaign.

On the June 7 edition of Fox News Live, anchor Brigitte Quinn noted the Globe's finding that the military records were "mostly a duplication" of what Kerry had previously released, but failed to mention the Swift Boat Veterans' attacks against Kerry during the campaign, only noting his assertion that he had refused to release the records earlier because he didn't want to "kowtow" to "the same partisan operatives who were lying about my record on a daily basis." Quinn then noted that Kerry's grade-point average at Yale was "virtually identical" to Bush's, even though Kerry was portrayed as "the more intellectual of the presidential candidates."

[NYCGirl]

1. And what you bolded is exactly what I said to you on another thread. NT

[snowbear]

2. That's exactly the point Al Franken made today..

Go Al.. :bounce:

[Mass]

4. Except that MediaMatters does not find necessary to criticize Kerry

for that.

He just makes the point that this IS the important information, not Kerry's grades or what Kerry did or did not do ten months ago.

[JI7]

3. of course, it was never about reporting the truth

which was out there then but which they refused to report. and they continued to report the lies even if proven to be lies. as i said before the problem is what the media focuses on and how they spin something rather than whether someone is doing or saying something.

[Mass]

5. The point is that the focus on the grades is a way for the media to ignore

the truth, that the SBVT lied.

[LittleClarkie]

6. Rush didn't make any sense at all on this issue today

He said, almost exactly, "You know why John Kerry didn't want to sign form 180? Because he didn't want anyone to see his college transcripts. He got four D's his first semester." Then he blathered something about how Kerry was supposed to be sooooooo intellectual.

I can only take him for about 5 minutes at a time, so that was about when I snapped it off. What a non-sequitor. He didn't sign form 180, which relates to his military records, because he didn't want people to see his college records? WTF?

Eh, it's Rush. Why am I surprised.

[snowbear]

7. Why do you listen to Rush?

WHY? :puke:

Big Eddie Schultz is on! Why support that oxycontin inhaling racist????

[LittleClarkie]

8. Eddie is on at 4, Rush is on at noon

I flip around looking for talk radio, from a local guy to O'Reilly to Paul Harvey and finally Rush. I'll flip him on to see what's got him in a tizzy, but I can't do it for long. He was on Hillary today as well.

We should keep tabs on the echo chamber, I reckon. He was echoing the Kerry impeachment lie yesterday.

[snowbear]

9. I wouldn't tune into his program for 1 second..

In fact.. a small country store I go to had Rush on a couple weeks ago and I complained about it. The guy said "yeah, he really is filled with hate isn't he, but I like listening to talk radio"

I asked him if I could show him a new station and he let me back where the radio was :) .. I switched it to "KUDO 1080 Anchorage" (which is a combo of Air America and the Jones Network)

I've been back several times and the guy is now a certified "Ed Head" (he listens to Al Franken before Ed, but he LOOOOVES Big Eddie)

And hey.. he's not even a DU'er! If he can turn off that big slob Rush, so can LittleClarkie! :hug:

[LittleClarkie]

10. There's truth in that

some days all he's doing is giving me an aneurysm.

And I gotta remember that Media Matters keeps track of the guy. So I don't have to.

Thanks for the reality check. :hug: