objective: objectivity

25 Aug 2004

This is the sort of reporting in the media that I can’t stand:

The letter signed by pro-Bush veterans said they were angry that he had never apologized for saying that U.S. troops had committed atrocities in Vietnam. Kerry has said those comments were taken out of context and that he had been quoting what veterans had told him.

No. That the comments were taken out of context and that he was quoting other veterans isn’t “what kerry has said” – it’s the god damn truth. It’s on the congressional record.

The whole thing is on the internet. You can go read it right now.

Reporting the verifiable truth as “what Kerry has said” in the face of these idiotic, slanderous lies is traitorous to the truth and any sense of journalistic integrity. But hey, it’s CNN, so what do you want.

Honestly, I could give two shits how far from Cambodia Kerry was on Christmas, or whether or not he got shot at while pulling someone out of the water. But when people start criticizing Kerry’s role in campaigning for the end of the Vietnam War, I get a little sensitive. It’s a part of our country’s legacy that should not be forgotten, and one of the few things I actually like about Kerry.

In related news, Arthur Silber links to my posts on the WSI (which seem to be garnering a lot more attention now, for obvious reasons) in his essay, which manages to weave seamlessly from “hot saucing” child discipline to Kerry and the Vietnam War.