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Red and Blue Media

by Roger Wm. Hughes,
chairman of Iowa Presidential Watch PAC

There has been a self-absorbed media examination of whether "media objectivity" is leaving the landscape of American journalism. The answer is yes.

Clearly, there are two American media -- one for the liberals and one for the conservatives. Nothing has brought that home to me more than the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Here is a group of individuals that couldn’t get anyone to pay attention to them. So, what did they do?

They followed the example Michael Moore and wrote a book, "Unfit for Command." They also produced an ad.

Now, the Boston Globe and Washington Post started a story yesterday on Larry Thurlow and how he received a Bronze Star in the same incident for which he is criticizing Sen. John Kerry’s receiving his medal. The citation states that Thurlow received the Bronze Star in part for being under automatic and small arms fire. This, the Boston Globe and Washington Post states, proves Kerry is telling the truth and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are lying. Kerry’s campaign even cited it as proof of Kerry’s veracity.

Hence, these newspaper articles were the setup piece for Kerry to "turn his boat into those who were firing at him," metaphorically speaking.

The other great onslaught of the Blue Media centers around the fact that a lot of Swiftees are from Texas. There they have friends who know President Bush and the Bush family. They even have found a ‘godfather’ -- William Perry -- to give them $100,000 who is friends with Karl Rove, and yes, some of them know Karl Rove as well. It is interesting that the Blue Media doesn’t say that the Swiftees should have obtained their money from Barbara Streisand.

Of course, this is proof that the scurrilous White House is lying and planned for these veterans to frag Kerry.

So, why has objective journalism gone out the window? Because there are things that journalist could be doing other than offering up a graphic of which members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have ever known or met a Bush or his supporters.

One thing that could be done is for Kerry to sign the Standard Form 180 and release his service medical records instead of offering up pieces that do nothing to prove that he had serious wounds and deserves his purple hearts.

Another thing that would go to proving whether Kerry and his small band is telling the truth (or the other side with over 250 former swift boat veterans) is to follow the paper work of how Kerry received a Purple Heart… when no in the chain of command says that they recommended him for it.

Another paper work trail would be to follow the awarding of Bronze Stars to Kerry and Thurlow. Thurlow states that it sounds like one of Kerry’s works of fiction, and he doesn’t know how the citation giving him a Bronze Star ever came to say that there was gunfire. He swears there wasn’t gunfire.

Another simply decent thing to do would be to ask the individuals who are now against Kerry why they stood up for Kerry in the past. What made them change their minds? This seems to be a common standard of objective journalism to follow before saying in the Boston Globe or the Washington Post that the person has no credibility because he switched sides. If that was the standard, then Kerry shouldn’t even be running for President, given how many times he has switched sides.

The prediction is that this will not get any better. In fact, it will only get worse.