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Friday, August 20, 2004

Is Virginia Postrel happy now that the post has reported on the swiftvets and Kerry in page A1 ?

I don't think so either. Postrel wrote to "Campaign journalists"

"Come on, folks. If you can't find out any independent sources on Kerry's own story, at least report the "he says-he says" allegations. And help out your audience with some context: Dig up some more-or-less unbiased (or at least nonpartisan) sources to provide some historical context for the bizarre Cambodia story. Never mind John Kerry specifically, what were U.S. operations during that period? Are any of his various accounts plausible and, if so, which ones? Or give readers some background on the procedures for awarding medals during Vietnam. There was a lot of medal inflation and, presumably, some politics in how medals were awarded."

I think what she really felt was "so long as you can't find out any independent sources, report. I want you to print he says-he-says allegations because when you do you hurt the reputation of him and him and since O'Neill isn't running for office it is fine by me if, on the basis of no evidence, you damage the reputations of O'Neill and of Kerry." However, journalists can find independent sources, for example, John Kerry's official military records. They aren't really independent and they are subjective. Clearly these easily available documentary records are biased by the opinions of the swiftvets, since the glowing praise of Kerry in officer evaluations and the specific descriptions of the reasons for giving him medals were written by swiftvets.

However, if Postrel were willing to look up what they wrote at the time (took me 5 minutes) and take their word for it, she would have dismissed the swiftvet adds a lying slander as, I suspect, has any open minded not terminally lazy person who is willing to look at the facts (that's just a guess I don't know any open minded people).

In any case, the Washington Post has also obtained Larry Thurlows military records after a FOIA application (he refused to release them) and reports

""I never heard a shot," Thurlow said in his affidavit, which was released by Swift Boats Veterans for Truth. The group claims the backing of more than 250 Vietnam veterans, including a majority of Kerry's fellow boat commanders.

A document recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely ignored in providing immediate assistance" to the disabled boat and its crew. The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.
"It's like a Hollywood presentation here, which wasn't the case," Thurlow said last night after being read the full text of his Bronze Star citation. "My personal feeling was always that I got the award for coming to the rescue of the boat that was mined. This casts doubt on anybody's awards. It is sickening and disgusting."
Thurlow said he would consider his award "fraudulent" if coming under enemy fire was the basis for it. "

As far as I know, Thurlow has not returned his medal. Oh and he claims he lost his citation (at least he didn't say his dog ate it).

Postrel asks about Cambodia in Dec 1968 "Never mind John Kerry specifically, what were U.S. operations during that period?" a hint can be obtained from the fact that Cambodia seized a US army landing craft in Cambodian waters on July 171968. Historians generally agree that there were covert US missions into Cambodia in 1968 and early 1969 as claimed by Kerry. As usual a few minutes on the web would have answered Postrel's questions if she were really interested in information.

I might add that Lt. James Rassmann a Republican who had not met Kerry in 30 years might count as an independent source, as are the FEC records which prove O'Neill a liar . They aren't independent, but the contradictions in the swiftvets' claims show they are lying.

It seems to me to be clear that Postrel is not interested in the truth about what happened over 30 years ago. Her desire for news articles on the swiftvets combined with a complete absence of any effort to evaluate their claims using the web (with which I suspect she is familiar) indicate bad faith. She wanted reporters to report without any solid evidence, because that would hurt Kerry.

Instead they collected solid evidence and reported it, thereby helping Kerry.

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