The esteemed New Journal, Delaware’s upstate newspaper, has finally ended its self-imposed news blackout on the John Kerry / Swiftboat Vets for Truth debacle.
So… Any guesses on which way they spun the story? Here’s a hint - the title; “'They can doubt all they want, but I saw'” Wow. Did they interview one of the Swiftboat vets?
Well… They started with an interview of Dr. John Levinson, a north Wilmington resident who said;
"My perspective is basically I've been down there and seen the Swift boats, visited their base," Levinson said in a telephone interview Wednesday. He said the atrocities that Kerry claimed happened in Vietnam, including the cutting off of ears and firing on civilians, actually did occur.He said his job as a medical adviser to the Senate was to investigate conditions in South Vietnam. "They can doubt that all they want, but I saw some of those things," Levinson said.
OK, so let me get this right. Dr. Levinson has “seen the Swift boats, [and] visited their base” and “…went to Vietnam more than a dozen times from 1963 to 1989…”
Yeah. Right. So, since I’ve worked in the aviation industry, and since I’ve driven by Cape Canaveral, perhaps The News Journal will interview me the next time they need the qualified opinion of AN ASTRONAUT! Seems just about as relevant.
Ahhh, but it seems the News Journal did have access to a real Delaware resident who is a Swiftboat Vet (and member of SBVFT), Wilmington banker, Bob Elder. Did they ask him about any of the allegations leveled in the book?
NNNNo. (Or at least if they did, they didn’t make the article.)
"We take the position he was undermining the individual fighting man" when Kerry came out against the war, Elder said in a telephone interview. "He was accusing them of war crimes that he said were a matter of policy at all levels, which they were not. None of us who were with him saw or participated in any of that."Elder also denied Kerry's contention that his group is connected to the Republican Party. Anyone may donate to the organization, he said, and some of them may happen to be Republicans, but "we would not be that dumb" to associate the group with President Bush.
"Any commissioned officer who in time of war gives aid and comfort to the enemy cannot be president of the United States," he said.
In fact, Elder said, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment blocks anyone from office who "shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion ... or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
"That's what we regard that he did," Elder said.
Yeah, definitely relevant, but where’s the discussion over the questionable medals? Christmas in Cambodia? Anyone? <crickets>
Levinson, however, said he had gone to the village of My Lai shortly after it had been destroyed and its inhabitants massacred by American soldiers in March 1968. "There was the complete loss of the dignity of human life," he said. "This is the kind of thing Kerry is screaming about. Kerry should be championed for criticizing these things," he said.
March of 68 huh? Wow. That’s the cincher. Kerry wasn’t in Vietnam until November of 1968. He knows less than even the good Dr. Levinson on this example.
So maybe I was wrong in my opening paragraph. The News Journal hasn’t ended their self-imposed news blackout on the John Kerry / Swiftboat Vets for Truth debacle.
Posted by Clancy at August 25, 2004 9:13 PM