Boston Globe buried revelation that 2004 campaign attacks were baseless

[Paul Dlugokencky]

From Media Matters

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506070004

- - - - -clip- - - -
Boston Globe highlighted Kerry's Yale grades, buried revelation that 2004 campaign
attacks were baseless

he 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."
- - - - -clip- - - -



http://www.cafepress.com/kickindemocrats

[ComerPerro]

1. Very disgusting

[murray hill farm]

2. i personally believe...

that john kerrys decision to sign the form now...was based on timing to follow closely to the DSM....a pulling together of lies...not just on Iraq, but on the election....a case is being built...lies are becoming public....more and more...the evidence is gathering...and if the media ignores..so be it...but the storm is gathering...and it may be a perfect storm.

[snowbear]

3. Maybe a contact e-mail for the BG should be posted?

So they know how many readers are disgusted with the way they chose to run the story?

Anyone know the best contact for them? Or does it have to be done via Letter to the Editor?

[Gothmog]

4. This is so wrong

The grades are not the issue here.

[MasonJar]

5. I just gave them feedback on the above, labeling their choice

typical.

[TayTay]

6. The Boston Globe and Kerry have always had a strained

relationship. This has gone on as long as I can remember. (I've been a voter in MA since '76.) The Globe has never 'bought' Kerry as who he says he is. They have always figured that he is either too good to be true and must be hiding something or a 'show horse.' (Someone who looks good but doesn't ever get anything done.) The truly weird part of this is the glowing (truly glowing) endorsements that he always picks up from the Editorial Review Board. It is a strange relationship and has been so ever since the '84 race.

I don't expect it to ever change. And, to be honest, it is highly amusing. But sides get their licks in. The Globe ran a supposedly funny parody of Kerry in April of this year that had a despondent Kerry hanging around the Mansion in his robe and slippers unable to muster much energy in light of his loss. Sen. Kerry's office fired off a LTTE that said, "Not funny." (Which was actually pretty funny, maybe it's a Boston thing.) I imagine the Globe got back at him with the Gay Marriage comments that he really didn't actually say in the way the Globe said he said it. And then this today. I can't wait to see the return volley. Ah, it keeps us amused in Boston.