FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes and MSNBC's Scarborough Country both gave free airtime on August 4 to a new, misleading ad sponsored by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a recently formed group dedicated to attacking Senator John Kerry's record during and after his service in Vietnam. Both programs devoted segments to the ad, airing it the day before its scheduled release, but left out key facts that discredit Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
In an August 5 interview with the Associated Press, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), "a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called the ad criticizing John Kerry's military service 'dishonest and dishonorable' and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well."
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did not serve alongside Kerry
In the new ad, members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claim that they "served with John Kerry." Hannity & Colmes co-host Sean Hannity echoed the false claim, saying that the veterans in the ad are "the people that know him best," and referred to them as "some of his fellow crewmates." Even Pat Halpin, who was filling in for co-host Alan Colmes, called them "some of John Kerry's crewmates." Scarborough echoed Swift Boat Veterans' misleading claim that they "served with John Kerry in Vietnam."
While the veterans attacking Kerry in the ad are veterans of the Vietnam War and may have served at the same time as Kerry, as The New York Times reported on August 5, the Kerry campaign noted that "none of the men had actually served on the Swift boats that Mr. Kerry commanded." Adm. Roy F. Hoffman, one of the veterans in the ad, has even "acknowledged he had no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry's claims to valor," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on May 7, "and said that although Kerry was under his command, he really didn't know Kerry much personally."
Thursday, August 05, 2004
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2 comments:
Doesn't McCain have a book out on courage? If its any good, he ought to read it. He needs to have the courage to be loyal to his country, not his party.
"When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas"...
Note that Fox news IS balanced, and therefore fair: but that is NOT the same as objective and truthful. I mean, if you're "balanced", where's the John Birch Society covered? Nader?
Does letting some percentage of Bush related lies to go through makes one "balanced": nonsense.
Break up the media.
Another bold statement by McCain: (balanced, but not true)
"I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."
Really?
And I served honorably at my office? Sure.
The wheels come off the cart when you with to use "serve" to mean "underfire on thousands of miles from home" and "practicing flying at home". It's an insult to combat veterans, and invites denigrating guard service by a terrible comparison.
How about serving honorably at McDonalds? (1 billion served!)
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