Media Matters on Kerry's records

[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."

[ginnyinWI]

1. you know,

if someone had just woken up from a coma and read about this story for the first time--the swifty liars v.s Kerry's military record--what they'd probably ask is:

What politician in his right mind would set up his whole presidential convention using a military theme, and highlight his military record by having his former crewmates standing behind him on stage, and even say "reporting for duty", if he was not a real war hero with a sterling record, and only lying about it? Honestly who would ever dare to do it, in today's politics, when every little thing gets examined by the other side for possible weak spots to attack them with? I thought this last summer and I still can't figure out how anyone would believe that a candidate for president would try to get away with something like that. Sigh. People just don't think. :eyes:

[sandnsea]

2. Oh come now Ginny

Bush set up his whole presidential convention and campaign against the backdrop of 9/11 and saving the country from the terrorists. When his obsession with Iraq caused him to drop the ball on Bin Laden and divert resources from capturing him.

Considering Bush did it, why wouldn't idiotic Republicans believe anybody would do it?

Our own Dems should have known better though. The ones who were ranting about the 180 instead of fighting the attacks are the ones who piss me off the most.

[karynnj]

3. Any Rove supported candidate

By highlighting it they might hide it in plain view. If McCain runs he will certainly highlight his service, even though there are some questions of the quality of his service before he was captured. So, if Kerry's service would have been more mixed - by highlighting the the high moments, lower moments might be seen in a better context or ignored altogether.

As it was, Brinkley, who was writing an independent book where Kerry gave him all his journals and letters, came away so obviously impressed by who Kerry was that his book, instead of being considered independent was treated as campaign literature. I would assume that the public release of documents probably will lead to his book being the best primary source on the swiftboats and Market time.

[kerrygoddess]

4. My take on why the Gobe headlined the grades...

I see a couple of reasons why the Globe did this actually.

1) Is to not be accused of favoring JK, which the right-wing bloggers have done anyone given what Kranish said in the form 180 story. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday reading the the right wing blogs to see what their spin was on it. To many Kerry supporters the Globe may not always be favorable to Kerry but to the otherside, they are overly favorable.

2) The grades story was new news and the form 180 story was old news. New news tends to get more frontpage coverage.


Finally with nothing new in the form 180 records, the grades story was new dirt the media could spin against JK. It's commonsense and how they work.

[karynnj]

5. I think the biggest problem was that other papers

took just the grades story. The NYT, for instance covered the grades, didn't mention any of his extra curricular activities, didn't mention why he (apparently randomly) decided to release his grades, did not mention he signed the oft mentioned form 180 and mentioned nothing about his military record.

I disagree that there was no news from the military records. The news was Kerry DID SIGN the form he DIDN'T have to sign. The SBVT
got plenty of coverage for months for there claim that Kerry was hiding something. The records show they lied and he didn't. That is news. If I weren;t on this board I wouldn't even know this because it wasn't covered in what I would normally read. Otherwise, this whole thing was just an unfair game - Kerry did what he had to and then has to put up with his college grades being released.


So the net result was a relatively negative Kerry article - which was actually more positive for Bush.

[rox63]

6. The college transcripts were part of the Form 180 release

He didn't go and release those separately. The Navy probably needed the transcripts for his admission to Officer Training, so they are also part of his military record.

[karynnj]

7. I wrote my post poorly, sorry

I knew the grades and the military records were from the same records dump due to Kerry signing form 180.

My problem was that the article dealt only with the grades and didn't mention the Form 180 or the military records. The grades are essentially gossip as they have no baring on anything.

The fact that Kerry signed and that the total Navy Records back him 100% - is news. It is important because so much coverage was given to unsubstantiated charges during the election. It is important that the record include the truth.

My problem stems from the following inequity:
- There clearly were problems in Bush's record. He didn't show up in Alabama (which he doesn't admit) and he was taken off flying in the AIR national guard. (which he admits) CBS didn't check the document as well as they should have, but the story itself was confirmed by both Killian's secretary and his boss said it sounded right. (These confirmations are as good as any put forth by the SBVT - the difference was Bush had missing documents while Kerry had official medals and over 100 pages of records on his web site.)

-After the document was questioned everyone and their grandmother jumped on CBS and 5 people ended up fired. Many stations reported the SBVT stuff. If they followed the same guidelines after several major charges were proven to be lies, the media should have turned as decisively on the SBVT.

- The problem now is that in Bush's case, people not paying much attention tend to believe that Bush was the one unfairly smeared by a fake memo and that his service is ok. For Kerry, the constant repetition did lead some people to have doubts. Now that he has done what was asked (at the expense of having his grades released), it's only fair that this confirmation of Kerry's claims be prominently covered.

[kerrygoddess]

8. That he signed the form 180 was still old news.

Yes there was news in the fact that the records were released and they substantiated the previous records, but in terms of journalism, it was still what would be considered rehashing old news. The grades story was new news and the MSM picked it up because they will cover something inane about Kerry before they cover anything serious.

Did we here in the news today that Kerry is producing a TV ad for Kids First? Hell no.

[karynnj]

9. You're right

Especially in these days of gotcha journalism. I do think though that at least mentioning that it was a result of signing form 180, which was part of the story, should have been done - and it wasn't in the NYT.

I guess what Kerry gets out of it is that if he runs again for President or Senator, he has the upper hand in saying his records were independently released. The articles written rehash some of the charges and have O'Neil still unsatisfied and demanding more. I guess I was naive to expect that Kerry would be publicly vindicated and the liars condemned for what they are.

[rox63]

10. At least it looks good on paper for JK

And it makes it all the more obvious that the SB Liars are just that, a bunch of loathsome liars.

[Mass]

11. As long as you avoid O'Neil's comments

not only on RW blogs, but also in LATIMES yesterday, claiming that the records are still not complete and that they were tampered with.

From these comments, it is clear that Kerry did the right thing by not agreeing to releasing these records last year. They would have asked for something else and something else and it would have never finished.

[karynnj]

12. I was disgusted with O'Neil's tone as much as his content

By the way, thank you for posting the LATIMES article - because it did seem to stop many of the people who were arguing that doing it is April last year would have made a difference.

I would have wished that the article would have had some sentence more clearly explaining that the records show that much of what the Texas Republican funded O'Neil wrote were shown to be lies.

I really don't know why he keeps bringing up Cambodia, where it can be conclusively proved he lied about himself and where at worst Kerry made a minor mistatement in the Senate almost 20 years after the fact. (From the facts, Kerry was clearly near the border )

[whometense]

13. Lovely snark from a Boston-based blog,

http://chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com/2005/06/john-kerry-got-indifferent-marks-yale.html">The Chimes at Midnight on this:

John Kerry got indifferent marks @ Yale

or so the Front Page of the Globe trumpeteth today. Waaa-al I dunno, Kerry seems to have read a few books and done some thinking since graduation, Bush on the other hand scowls petulantly and cannot use the word "dissemble" correctly in a sentence - a challenge that my eleven year old niece would sneer at.

Nevertheless, look for McGrory, Lehigh, Vennochi, Jacoby & McNamara to all get the boot in on this like good little yaps in the days to come. They all have fond memories of kicking JK when he was down in the fall of 2003 and probably wanna wallow in nostalgia now that we are entering the op-ed slow season.

[TayTay]

14. Amen to that one

The wags at the Globe know that Kerry is smarter than them. But this is a sort of retribution on the guy the Glob has never quite been able to sink. (This goes waaaaay back with the Globbies. Kerry kept taking out their favorites and the Globbies never forget.)

[whometense]

15. Maybe it's just me, but

I find the brouhaha about Kerry's undergrad grades (and freshman year, no less. sheesh.) oddly hilarious.

Maybe it's because his intelligence is so clearly on display at all times. I mean, if you wanted to be a jerk about Kerry there are things you could pick on, but his smarts?? Give me a break. I'll lay odds even your average-Joe voter from Nebraska somewhere won't fall for this kind of spin. It's just too patently not true. If anything, my guess is this news makes him more sympathetic, not less.

[TayTay]

16. Chicago Tribune Editorial (6/8)

What your grades don't say


The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, June 8:

(SNIP)

Bush and Kerry likely would have scored better in today's climate of grade inflation. And both exploited other advantages after leaving Yale. But Kerry and Bush also are living parables, proof to today's college grads that your transcript doesn't dictate your life. (In fact, after you land your first job, you probably won't be asked about it again.)

Grades do measure important attributes: tenacity, organization, calculation and, especially, persistence. They do not, though, reliably measure passion, kindness or integrity. No matter what our transcripts say, most of us come to realize that desire trumps talent _ and that, if you have a lousy attitude, neither of those strengths will bring fulfillment, or much else.

So, as we leave the stage with our diplomas, most of us are not yet the people we will be.

You can check that with George W. Bush, who got a high B in philosophy. Or with John Kerry, who finished with a high B in political science.

[kerrygoddess]

19. Link?

[TayTay]

20. No

They don't archive. Apparently, they don't even keep things longer than a day online.

I got L/N

[ginnyinWI]

17. good point

It makes him more human, someone the average person can identify with. Works for Dubya! But the difference is that JK's freshman year grades have nothing to do with who he is today. Clinton was the Rhodes scholar who had humble origins and that worked, so maybe Kerry needs to have a few more flaws? Is he too perfect for the average voter? It's funny how politics works, sometimes. I don't think it's damaged his reputation at all.

[karynnj]

18. I think you're right

I remember reading somewhere that negative stories resonate only when they fit some part of a stereotype. The example given was that had Bill Clinton misspelled potato, there may have been a few snarky laughs, but no damage. But anything that made it seem like he was cutting ethical corners did hurt.

I agree that with Kerry, it almost makes him more human. I do think it's funny that they're all repeating the same thing about "thinking" Kerry was complex and intellectual and Bush mangled the English language. The problem is that it is no less true because as an exuberant teen, Kerry decided he could learn to fly, work a part time job, participate in demanding extracurricular activities and play 4 sports. The guy was 18 years old! Anyone who saw the debates has to know the guy is very intelligent.

I doubt at 61 having been described as articulate, intelligent etc since at least 1971 - I don't think he would be too defensive about it. (However, if he ever complained about his kids, they may have been called him.)

[beachmom]

21. Accepting JK's Yale grades

Okay, guys, I will admit it. I was surprised by Kerry's performance at Yale, and a little taken aback for about two days, so I didn't post anything until I had internalized it. There were hints about this in the past -- JK mentioned that he wished he had a mentor and had majored in something else other than political science. My Dad also was a C student when he was in college, and his answer was he had a good time and was president of his fraternity! I guess even in the 60s it was just a big deal to GO to college, let alone the Ivy League. You were guaranteed a good career if you graduated from Yale. The grade inflation thing makes sense, too. But . . . I thought Kerry was a "striver" and extremely competitive. Why did he do so poorly, especially freshman year? Maybe we'll never get a good answer for that.

Having stated all of my reservations, JK's Yale grades are irrelevant compared to his amazing accomplishments, his courage, his boundless curiosity, his workaholic lifestyle, his persistence. But this is putting his Navy experience into perspective for me. He did amazingly well as an officer in the Navy -- he was forced into being focussed, and performed brilliantly. Yes, he had some great accomplishments at Yale -- sports, Skull and Bones, the Debate Team, and being picked to give the speech for graduation. But all of these pale to his performance in Vietnam and as a war protester afterwards. Vietnam was both a horrible thing for JK but also the experience which brought out his greatness.

His integrity remains intact. He didn't run on his Yale diploma; he ran on what he did in Vietnam, and it makes sense that he did so. I've had it with the RW meme that it was a mistake to emphasize Vietnam so much. This really was his strength and showed what he was made of.

[karynnj]

22. I think he gave the answer himself in another comment

He was involved in too many extra curricular activities. The debate team and political union would have taken a lot of time and he chose to play in 4 sports. In addition he had a part time job, getting a pilot's license, and from what it sounds like a pretty active social life. He was obviously an 18 year old wanting to choose to do everything and he may have spent less time in the library researching for papers than people who opted for more normal life styles. (I would also suspect missed classes (in an era where that could affect grades). But there are worse things an 18 yr old could do - he seems a pretty clean cut kid.

Although I doubt he had a pleasant conversation with his parents over these grades, it would seem that neither Yale or his parents pushed him to drop any of his activities. There really has been a lot of grade inflation since then. If I remember right, in the late 60s, it only took a 3.0 to make Dean's list at IU and GPAs in the low 3 range could and did get you into really good jobs. (From high school, I know that the GPA at the bottom of the top 10% was 3.2 ) So, his senior year grades were fine, especially with all the activities etc.

College grades have no importance to assessing him now. They also change none of his accomplishments or his character.I agree with you on VN, especially because of his commitment to the welfare of other veterans without his position in society.

[TayTay]

23. I also think Vietnam was the more definitive experience

I have always thought this. The people he went to school with were the 'Eastern Ruling Elite.' They designed the cold war foreign policy of the United States and designed the early entrance into the Vietnam War. The idea of containment and the Domino Theory came out of New England schools like Harvard and Yale. The architects of one of the most damaging wars in history were the parents of people Kerry knew personally. The Professors at Yale proably consulted at times with the government.

A young and serious John Kerry bought the line about the war. He enlisted, with reservations, because he still believed in doing his duty and that he owed something back to the country that had given him such advantages. Kerry got his real education after Yale when he figured out that the 'Best and Brightest' could still fuck up in fundamental ways and that those fuck-ups had extremely awful consequences. For my money, that's when Kerry gets interesting, at that moment that he realized that he had been lied to. Not lied to by some distant governmental structure or official, but lied to up close and personal. He met McGeorge Bundy. Bundy advised him to join up, become an officer and go to Southeast Asia. He lied to him, to his face. This, for my money, was a much more significant factor in what John Kerry did with his life than any other event.

The John Kerry that was lied to was the John Kerry who took on the Reagan Administration about Iran-Contra and perservered at it, even when Admin flunkies tried to smear him with false collaborationist charges. That John Kerry followed through on the BCCI investigations, even when Democrats sarcastically remarked to him, "Nice going. Taking on a bank that has Democrats running it. Good move, John." That John Kerry took on the wingnuts who insisted that there were hundreds of MIAs still alive in Vietnam and got vastly improved relations between the US and that country. That John Kerry is a hell of a American and a good politician. That's why I voted for him, both in state races and nationally.

The grades mean nothing to me. They preceed the real education of the man. The real guy shows up in "Going Upriver" as a moral and courageous guy who couldn't let the lies go through. That's the really interesting pol that I like. That's a guy with a really good education.

[beachmom]

24. Very good points, Tay Tay

But . . . I think that Dems should learn a lesson from this. We totally gave * a hard time for his school performance, when it was really his JOB performance, or lack thereof, which was the big problem. If he had successfully run a business without family help (or hell, even WITH family help at this point), for example, that could have partially vindicated his mediocre performance, too. It was the fact that he did NOTHING with his life for so long. And even with his recent successes -- Texas Rangers, Governor of Texas, and POTUS -- he's NEVER done anything successful on his own. It seems like someone is always doing the job for him while he smiles pretty for the cameras. By the way, I don't think * is stupid. Someone said of him, that he is in fact a smart man who chooses to be ignorant. THAT'S my problem with him. Not grades.

But if anybody starts a debate about how Kerry got the same grades as *, well then, we can bring up the fact that Kerry's Yale grades were an anomaly to an otherwise extremely successful life while * wandered through the wilderness for decades only emerging as a figurehead for others with much more intellectual ability (say what you want about the neo-cons, but they are an elitist, intellectual crowd . . . kind of like those who started the Vietnam War).

[TayTay]

25. This is true

There are a lot of early Kerry stories that I like. They humaize him. (I love the joke-off stories. Seems that during the '84 Senate General Election, Kerry and his Rethug opponent took time off to participate in a joke-off at a local radio station. Kerry did a story in an Irish brogue about 'a priest, a nun and a whatever walk into a bar.' He won the joke-off 187-98. (I have an actual Globe story about this. Honest to gawd. LOL!)

I love the story of how he supported himself in between working for the Middlesex DA and getting elected LT. Gov. He was a private attorney and he had a number of cases that had to do with bad hair implants. (Sigh! no wonder he went back into politics.) the fact that he owned the cookie shop at Faneuil Hall and had to meet a fast food restaurant payroll. All that stuff is humanizing and takes some of that seriousness and gavitas a place to live.