Sound of Crickets Chirping

[billroper]

This column by Larry Simoneaux (who I know nothing about other than what I just read in the linked-to column) does a fine job of encapsulating my feelings about the utter silence from the mainstream press in trying to determine what's the truth of the situation with John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

I've watched stories on the Internet for the past week since I first heard about Senator Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia" on Fox News Channel. That's the only place I can get any information, because none of the mainstream press that should be interested in getting to the truth has reported on it at all that I can find. Just to pick on my hometown papers, the Chicago Tribune hasn't mentioned it at all in their news pages. The Chicago Sun-Times has referenced it twice on the editorial page, here and here. But I'm not really interested in editorializing on the subject. What I want are facts.

I can find blogs like Captain's Quarters which have assembled an impressive recitation of what they say are the facts. But are they telling the truth?

I don't know that. But I'd like to believe that the mainstream press would pursue this story with the same kind of dogged persistence that they've chased after President Bush's National Guard Service Records.

Because I'd like to know the truth.

I really would.

Comments

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

(continued)

In the 1979 Boston Herald story, Kerry states: "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

This one makes a more explicit connection between the Christmas 1968 mission and being shot at, but again it may very well be that the Nixon reference is referring to Nixon's denial, which as I recall was in 1969. And again, you have to note that he could have been speaking generally, or that the borders were unclear. You have to examine all of it in that light.

Conclusion? Jury's still out on this one, but it would be incorrect to say that he's basing his political career on this statement. Kerry's career is based on a long history of political activism, his time as a DA, his run for Congress and eventually appointment as Senator. He had - has - a lot more going for him than this.

[billroper]

Well, the LA Times reported on some of this today. Interestingly, they omitted the fact that Kerry's campaign has apparently retracted the statement that he was in Cambodia at Christmas.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

I can only say that the Washington Times is a a well right-wing paper - owned by News World Communications, which was founded by Sun Myung Moon - and even the editorial is misleading: it says that Kerry said the date was seared into his memory, which is not true. At the risk of being accused of even more hair-splitting, Kerry says the memory of being shot at is seared into him. Of course, I admit that the general impression from Kerry's statement is that he is referring to the Christmas 1968 incident.

Aside from that, I can't defend it much - I do think, however, that Kerry might have been mistaken about where exactly he was on Christmas Eve 1968, but that the campaign went a bit far to say that he wasn't even sure of the date.

As to Wikipedia - it's a work in progress, and there's still partisan battles to fight over the article particularly in the light of the election. The main article itself is a pretty objective overview of the SBVT affair, though. I've said before - Wikipedia, like all wikis, are not 100% reliable sources, although they may be decent rough and ready resource.

[billroper]

I am fully aware of the pedigree of the Washington Times, which is why I hesitated to quote from it. However, I've seen the report in multiple media; thus, I am tempted to believe that it is true.

Here's another: Telegraph.co.uk

Of course, it's terribly hard to find the Chicago Tribune's coverage of this, since they still haven't reported on it. However, I'm confident that they will reprint the LA Times article tomorrow.

[billroper]

Ah, here's a pro-Kerry columnist from the Boston Globe referencing the stories from Kerry's campaign correcting the Cambodia story. That should do.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

I agree with the Globe that Kerry needs to come out and say it, but it's going to be hard to say he was mistaken about the date or, as Brinkley suggests, mistaken about how far he was away from Cambodia. I know it sounds a bit trite, but even if he was mistaken about the dates and locations - and I do not believe he was lying - if this is the only thing that sticks to him, it's a small thing. As I mentioned before, he's got a lot more going for him than just this.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

As an aside about the Silver Star, a theory has surfaced which sounds plausible to me. The Zumwalt signed citation was the original one, but the general practice is to have citations able to be fit on one page, which Zumwalt's overran. So when it went up to CINCPAC for final approval (even though Zumwalt may have had de facto authority to issue the SS), CINCPAC's office edited it down to one page. The SecNav's citation was a courtesy re-issue, issued during Reagan's time, and follows CINCPAC's version. So the official, contemporaneous copy would be CINCPAC's.

[billroper]

By the way, I went and looked up the Wikipedia entry on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and was interested to note that none of the additional articles that were cited were favorable to them.