[Speed Gibson,
Monday January 10, 2005 at 3:48pm]
Hugh is unhappy, so ...
Hugh Hewitt is unhappy that the bloggers haven't reacted more strongly to the CBS report and actions regarding those infamous forged memos. In fact, he asked the rest of us bloggers to take up the slack and thereby push NARN, LGF, etc. OK, here's my small contribution.
What catches my eye is Hindrocket's theory that CBS moved up the TANG piece from late Sept 2004 to early Sept because the Kerry campaign was taking hard hits from the SwiftVets.
First, the fact the CBS (and the MSM generally) ignored the SwiftVets with real evidence and testimony eliminates any thought that CBS was just pursuing a good story, with no political bias. The real evidence available against John Kerry didn't matter. The imaginary evidence against George W. Bush did. Further, unlike the TANG story, the SwiftVet story was germane to the election, since Kerry ran on his war record. Case closed.
Second, is the timing. Supposing the SwiftVets hadn't bothered. Without such pressure, CBS apparently would have run this story much later in Sept. And with time, someone might have realized they needed better forgeries and made some, plus a better story to corroborate their existence and sudden discovery.
It would have been much harder for the Bush campaign to fight off a more competent fraud, executed several weeks closer to election day. Perhaps we owe the SwiftVets more than we know.
What catches my eye is Hindrocket's theory that CBS moved up the TANG piece from late Sept 2004 to early Sept because the Kerry campaign was taking hard hits from the SwiftVets.
First, the fact the CBS (and the MSM generally) ignored the SwiftVets with real evidence and testimony eliminates any thought that CBS was just pursuing a good story, with no political bias. The real evidence available against John Kerry didn't matter. The imaginary evidence against George W. Bush did. Further, unlike the TANG story, the SwiftVet story was germane to the election, since Kerry ran on his war record. Case closed.
Second, is the timing. Supposing the SwiftVets hadn't bothered. Without such pressure, CBS apparently would have run this story much later in Sept. And with time, someone might have realized they needed better forgeries and made some, plus a better story to corroborate their existence and sudden discovery.
It would have been much harder for the Bush campaign to fight off a more competent fraud, executed several weeks closer to election day. Perhaps we owe the SwiftVets more than we know.