The American Enterprise is a conservative publication that bills itself as a “brightly colored, brilliantly argued magazine that is as witty and addictively fun to read as it is authoritative.” Today, the magazine’s website features an interview with John O’Neill, the most prominent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Normally, we wouldn’t spend our time discussing O’Neill, who has been repeatedly shown to be a serial liar. But the Orwellian introduction to The American Enterprise’s interview with O’Neill is just too good to pass up. Here are the first two paragraphs:
One of the most dramatic stories of Election 2004 was the coalescence of a large group of Vietnam veterans dedicated to the idea that John Kerry was not fit to become America’s Commander in Chief. Many of those who joined Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had served with Kerry in Vietnam. And his behavior there–and, even more, upon his return–convinced them that Kerry could not be trusted to lead our nation in wartime.
To their great surprise, the testimony of the Swift Boat veterans was simply ignored by a hostile media establishment. The veterans were tenacious, however, and eventually captured the attention of the alternate media, then finally the nation as a whole. That’s when the media elites attacked them with icy ferocity.
We’re pretty sure we can take this passage apart, though perhaps not with icy ferocity. In the first sentence, the writer sets the tone, alleging that, in “dramatic” fashion, the Swift Boat Veterans’ magically coalesced together. The word implies the group was organic, non-partisan and legitimate to boot — an interesting take, given that the group was initially funded primarily by “the biggest Republican campaign donor in Texas,” Houston home builder Bob R. Perry, and featured in one of their ads Ken Cordier, a member of the Bush-Cheney ’04 National Veterans Steering Committee.
The second sentence is easier to parse, since it’s simply an outright lie — only one of the SBVFT can plausibly claim to have served with Kerry. The vast majority, it has become clear, never actually met him. There aren’t any obvious problems with the third sentence — it’s the least objectionable one here — but it still gave us pause. Phrases like “could not be trusted to lead our nation in wartime” are political rhetoric designed to stir sentiment, not the precise language good journalists use to convey facts.
Onto the second paragraph: Contrary to the claim put forth in the first sentence, the testimony of the Swift Boat Veterans wasn’t ignored by the press. Indeed, even when the group was an unknown staging its first press conference last May, both CBS and Fox News attended and gave the event coverage. After the group’s first attack ad — timed to coincide with publication of O’Neill’s book — came out in August, there was a rush of media coverage, and the attack ad, which had appeared in only three states, suddenly seemed ubiquitous on the cable news channels. The nature of the coverage, much of it marred by misguided attempts to be “fair” to all sides, meant that the Swifties could lie with impunity. It was nowhere near “hostile” to them, as we made clear in August.
As for the rest of the piece, we’re not sure what the “alternate media” referred to here is — blogs? talk radio? right-wing magazines? — but we’re all too familiar with the term “media elites,” a code word once used to discredit journalism by exploiting some sort of amorphous class resentment (Subtext: They’re elite and out of touch, but you and I, dear reader, are not.). Using phrases like that, of course, is far easier than conducting an actual point-by-point critique of a body of work.
As for the “icy ferocity” of said elites? Um, what, exactly, is icy ferocity? Is it something you can teach? Must one be ferocious, but also, uh, shivering? Whatever it is, we’re pretty confident that it wouldn’t much help someone trying to break into journalism.
Nonetheless, if you’re one of those people who likes to gawk at journalistic train wrecks, this soft-hitting interview is for you. So check it out.
Hell, they ought to exhibit it at journalism schools.
–Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.