Why did John Kerry spend much of the month of August on the defensive, attempting to refine his murky position on the war in Iraq but also diverting his efforts into a defense against attacks on his Vietnam service?
This morning’s Washington Post brings us a Jim VandeHei analysis mapping out some reasons why. VandeHei offers a convincing examination and analysis of the events that led to Kerry’s recent downspin — right up until he asserts that “Kerry fought with aides over how aggressively to respond [to attacks on his Vietnam record] — initially staying silent despite his better judgment, friends say. Eventually he did fight back to defend his medals, and many of the charges have been discredited.”
While it’s true that Kerry’s silence greatly contributed to the initial success of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attack on Kerry, VandHei curiously (or not so curiously) omits another factor that gave the group and its charges momentum — the failure of the press to immediately do its own homework on the charges in the SBVFT ads. Not until Kerry fought back did the press rouse itself to look into the matter. As Campaign Desk wrote last month, despite a SBVFT press conference in early May announcing its intentions, and an ad buy and book release in early August, the major papers failed to bring us significant investigating and reporting that debunked many of the groups’ charges until the end of the month. In the meantime, the SBVFT’s charges were relayed to the public essentially unfiltered, in “he-said/she-said” form, leaving readers and viewers no clue as to the credibility of either side in the debate. Had the press done its job in holding charge up against fact and rendering a verdict on the veracity of the SBVFT in its own voice, then the public would have learned the facts without having to wait for Kerry to go on the offensive.
In light of the press’ well-documented failures and complicity in the run-up to the war in Iraq, it’s disheartening to see the same scenario play out all over again on a smaller stage. Any post-mortem on the presidential race’s momentum shift in August is incomplete without acknowledging that the press was a player.
–Thomas Lang
Thomas Lang was a writer at CJR Daily.