Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from Vietnam-Avoiding Bush? --7/23/2004

1. Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from Vietnam-Avoiding Bush?
Dan Rather prompted John Kerry to expound on how he's angry at President Bush for criticizing his Vietnam service while Bush avoided the war. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, in a second installment of his Wednesday interview, Rather asked Kerry: "Have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam?" Kerry replied, "Yup, I have been," and went on to confirm it "grates a little bit" and is "irritating."

2. Jennings Nearly Brings Kerry to Tears, Brokaw Sticks to Policy
ABC's Peter Jennings caught up with Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, who had interviewed John Kerry on Wednesday, and sat down with Kerry on Thursday. In an excerpt played on Thursday's World News Tonight, Jennings' questions ranged from Kerry's speaking style to his defense of his position on abortion to how his late parents will miss their son's "moment in the sun," a point which caused Kerry to choke up. NBC's Tom Brokaw, meanwhile, delivered a second installment of his Wednesday session with Kerry and, as he did in the excerpt run the night before, Brokaw focused on policy questions about, for instance, whether Kerry disagrees with putting Iran in the "Axis of Evil." Brokaw also raised how Julian Bond charged "that the Republican Party's idea of equality is flying the American flag and what he called the 'swastika of the Confederate flag' side by side..."

3. Reporters Over-Simplify Commission Finding on Iraq-al-Qaeda Ties
At the 9/11 Commission press conference on Thursday, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard noted how the 9/11 Commission changed its language from the staff report's statement of "no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda the final report's characterization of "no collaborative operational relationship with regard to the attacks on the United States." Chairman Tom Kean confirmed that "there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda." Nonetheless, some prominent media figures distorted the Commission's finding.

4. 9/11 Commission Report Chides Media for Inattention to Terrorism
Don't count on seeing much about this in the media anytime soon: Editor & Publisher noticed that the 9/11 Commission report is critical of the news media's inattention to terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. The report zeroed in on a New York Times article in April 1999 which "sought to debunk claims that Bin Laden was a terrorist leader, with the headline 'U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks.'"

Rather to Kerry: Angry at Attacks from
Vietnam-Avoiding Bush?

Dan Rather prompted John Kerry to expound on how he's angry at President Bush for criticizing his Vietnam service while Bush avoided the war. On Thursday's CBS Evening News, in a second installment of his Wednesday interview, Rather asked Kerry: "Have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam?" Kerry replied, "Yup, I have been," and went on to confirm it "grates a little bit" and is "irritating."

When Rather inquired if Kerry thought he had made and "mistakes" in his anti-war efforts, Kerry cited "some language that I used," but Rather and CBS again failed, as they did back in April, to inform viewers of what Kerry said in 1971 when he asserted that soldiers in Vietnam were regularly committing "atrocities."

Rather set up his July 22 CBS Evening News segment: "Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, said today that while, quote, 'this is not the time for politics, the 9/11 report does show that intelligence reforms are lagging and long overdue.' He said U.S. intelligence is hampered by what he called an ongoing war within the administration, but he did not single out President Bush for blame. In our interview yesterday, Senator Kerry said he wants to run a positive campaign but is perfectly willing to be critical of himself."
Kerry: "I regret some of early things I did in politics which weren't very smart. I've learned from them."
Rather: "Regret the anti-war movement leadership?"
Kerry: "No, not in the least. Very proud of it."
Rather: "People say, look, John Kerry's a war hero, and the record shows that you are, but can you be a war hero and be a leader of an anti-war movement?"
Kerry: "I was."
Rather: "And you're proud of that?"
Kerry: "You bet I am."
Rather: "Make any mistakes in that regard?"
Kerry: "Yes, some language that I used, I've said before, I think was a little, you know, was reflective of a young man who was angry, a young man who felt disappointed by our own government leaders who had lied to us. I regret that I wasn't perhaps more tuned into how something I said might affect somebody. But you learn. That's the beauty of life."
Rather: "Speaking of angry, have you ever had any anger about President Bush, who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard, running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam? You have to be at least irritated by that, or have you been?"
Kerry: "Yup, I have been. That's an honest answer. Those of us who served care enormously about the people we served with and the fact of our having put our lives on the line. And I think when others challenge that it would be inhuman if it didn't grate a little bit. But, again, I keep my eye on a larger target. I'm running to be President of the United States because I believe in this country and I think the American people can see through those kinds of things. So I hold my breath and put my trust in the American people to look for something bigger and better than that kind of silly attack. But it does irritate, sure."

For the online version, with video: www.cbsnews.com

Back in April, CyberAlert recounted how CBS avoiding reporting what Kerry said at an April 22, 1971 Senate hearing. As James Taranto relayed in his March 1 "Best of the Web" report for OpinionJournal.com:
"Kerry told a Senate committee that U.S. servicemen 'personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.' He said these were 'not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.'" See: www.opinionjournal.com

Human Events has posted a PDF of a transcript of Kerry's portion of that April 22, 1971 hearing: www.humaneventsonline.com

On the April 18 Meet the Press, Tim Russert played a clip from Kerry's April 18, 1971 appearance on the show. Kerry had asserted: "There are all kinds of atrocities and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare. All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free-fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals."

For more on CBS's avoidance of what Kerry said in 1971, see these two late April CyberAlerts: www.mediaresearch.org
And: www.mediaresearch.org

A couple of weeks later, the May 8 CyberAlert detailed how CBS tried to discredit some Vietnam veterans critical of John Kerry by impugning them as partisan activists tied to the Bush campaign, though the only link seems to be a public relations firm involved in the 2000 campaign, and tarring all of them with the supposed dirty work for Richard Nixon of one. Very McCarthyistic. FNC's Carl Cameron, however, managed to avoid innuendo as he undermined the credibility of specific vets by showing how in the past they had praised Kerry. CBS's Byron Pitts went back to 1971 as he recalled how John O'Neill, who debated Kerry about Vietnam on ABC's Dick Cavett Show, "was handpicked by the Nixon administration to discredit Kerry." Pitts added, without any explanation, that "the press conference was set up by the same people who," in 2000, "tried to discredit John McCain's reputation in Vietnam service." Then Pitts connected the anti-Kerry veterans to a presumed nefarious "strategy" they had nothing to do with implementing: "It's the same strategy used to go after Georgia Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam." See: www.mediaresearch.org

On July 14, CNSNews.com reporter Robert Bluey filed an update about those in the group, Swift Boat Veteran for Truth. For the article, "Kerry Is No War Hero, Say Vietnam Comrades," see: www.cnsnews.com

Jennings Nearly Brings Kerry to Tears,
Brokaw Sticks to Policy

ABC's Peter Jennings caught up with Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, who had interviewed John Kerry on Wednesday, and sat down with Kerry on Thursday. In an excerpt played on Thursday's World News Tonight, Jennings' questions ranged from Kerry's speaking style to his defense of his position on abortion to how his late parents will miss their son's "moment in the sun," a point which caused Kerry to choke up. NBC's Tom Brokaw, meanwhile, delivered a second installment of his Wednesday session with Kerry and, as he did in the excerpt run the night before, Brokaw focused on policy questions about, for instance, whether Kerry disagrees with putting Iran in the "Axis of Evil."

Brokaw also made Kerry respond to a supporter's incendiary attack on Bush and Republicans: "When Julian Bond, who's the head of the NAACP, said the other day that the Republican Party's idea of equality is flying the American flag and what he called the 'swastika of the Confederate flag' side by side, did that make it more difficult for you to attract so-called NASCAR dads and other swing voters in America?"

Jennings told Kerry that "Jesse Jackson said this morning you need 'some shoutin' to do'" and pressed him on his abortion position: "If you believe that life begins at conception, is even a first trimester abortion not murder?" Jennings also raised whether "there is too much violence and too much sex in American entertainment" and asked if he'd use his "moral leadership with your Hollywood friends in order to reduce it?"

Jennings caught up with Kerry in Detroit where he spoke Thursday to the Urban League. The MRC's Brad Wilmouth, based on ABC's posting of the interview, put together what July 22 World News Tonight viewers saw.

Jennings set up the segment: "Senator John Kerry, the Democratic challenger to President Bush, was here in Detroit today to deliver a speech at the annual conference of the National Urban League. It is one of the nation's largest organizations dedicated to advancing civil rights as well as economic equality for African-Americans. It is certainly an important constituency for any Democratic candidate. After he talked to the convention, Senator Kerry talked to us."
Jennings to Kerry: "What are the characteristics of a great Kerry speech?"
John Kerry: "It remains to be measured, I guess. I don't know. I mean, you speak from your heart, Peter. That's number one. When I talked to Congress back in 1971, which is a speech that has been remembered, I just talked through my gut about things that I believed. And that's exactly what I intend to do."
Jennings: "Getting all sorts of advice?"
Kerry: "Oh, sure. I've gotten letters. I've gotten faxes. I've gotten great advice. And some very contradictory advice."
Jennings: "Jesse Jackson said this morning you need 'some shoutin' to do.' Do you think that's reasonable advice?"
Kerry: "I think you have to remember that you're talking to a television set as much as you're talking to a hall, and you have to be very careful."

Jennings provided a segue: "The Senator has always supported a woman's right to have an abortion, but he also agrees with the central premise of the anti-abortion movement -- that life begins at conception."

Back to the taped interview, Kerry explained: "My personal belief about what happens in the fertilization process as a human being is first formed and created, and that's when life begins. Something begins to happen. There's a transformation. There's an evolution. And within weeks, you look and see the development of it, but that's not a person yet, and it's certainly not what somebody, in my judgment, ought to have the government of the United States intervening in."
Jennings challenged him: "If you believe that life begins at conception, is even a first trimester abortion not murder?"
Kerry: "No, because it's not the form of life that takes personhood in the terms that we have judged it to be in the past. I do believe we should talk about alternatives to abortion. I think we should talk about adoption. I think we should talk about, I think it is responsible to talk about abstinence, but I also believe you should talk about proper education of people -- sex education."
Jennings, over video of Kerry playing guitar on stage: "The Republicans accuse Senator Kerry of being so close to liberals in Hollywood that he is out of touch with mainstream American values."
Jennings to Kerry: "Do you think there is too much violence and too much sex in American entertainment, and would you, should you, now be using your moral leadership on your Hollywood friends or with your Hollywood friends in order to reduce it?"
Kerry: "In the appropriate ways, at the appropriate times, absolutely. Do I think there is too much? Yes. And I think it has an impact, frankly, on how America is viewed in the world. I think part of our struggle with those of other religions who object to American culture needs to be thoughtful and sensitive to some of what we export abroad. But I've never been in favor, and I'm not now, of an overreach by the government that has a chilling effect on the First Amendment or that seeks to have a kind of censorship of some kind."
Jennings: "I have a couple of last personal questions before I let you go on your way. You're about to have a moment in the sun that very few men ever have, and neither of your parents are here to see it. I wonder if you've thought about that?"
Kerry, choking up: "Yes, it's sad. Sure. I do think about it, and I'll talk about it because I miss 'em."
Jennings: "The country has never knowingly elected a cancer survivor. And I wonder if you think about that."
Kerry: "You know, I don't, because I'm so confident in the advances that have been made in terms of the particular cancer I had, prostate cancer, are so great that I don't think about it for a second. And if Lance Armstrong is about to win his sixth, you know, Tour de France, believe me, I'm absolutely ready to go be president. The statistics on my particular kind of cancer say that you're stuck with me, unfortunately some people who don't like me are stuck with me for a long time."

Jennings promised more interview excerpts would air during ABC's convention coverage next week.

For the ABCNews.com posting of the transcript of the entire interview: abcnews.go.com

Over on Thursday's NBC Nightly News, viewers saw the second installment of Brokaw's Wednesday session with Kerry. Brokaw set it up: "As has been reported earlier, the 9/11 Commission identified Iran to a much greater degree than Iraq as a passageway for al-Qaeda operatives. In my interview with Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry last night, I asked about Iran and also about the tone of the campaign, specifically the comments of Julian Bond, the head of the NAACP."

Brokaw to Kerry in the interview taped in Boston: "There's strong evidence that Iran is in pursuit of a nuclear weapon at some stage. There's also strong evidence that it's now meddling in Iraq. So was President Bush wrong to characterize it as part of the 'axis of evil'? Iran?"
Kerry: "I think that the term 'axis of evil' is a misapplied term, frankly, historically and in terms of the present. Iran is a problem. Iran, in fact, was a greater problem than Iraq at the time that the President started the war in Iraq. North Korea was a greater problem than Iraq at the time the President started the war in Iraq. The United States of America should have long ago offered the following deal: If Iran is serious about not pursuing nuclear weapons, we'll supply you with the nuclear power, and we'll contain the nuclear material that's created as a result."
Brokaw: "As you know, the United States has no better friend in the region than King Abdullah of Jordan. And he told me recently that now there is hostility toward not just the American government, but the American people. And the root of it all, the root of terrorism, is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Kerry: "The policy that Ariel Sharon announced in Gaza is the policy that, in effect, was arrived at in the negotiations and agreed to by all parties. And people who are claiming that the adoption of that policy is somehow a roadblock to the ability to make peace are really frankly once again exploiting the issues in the region. What is missing is an Arab, a Palestinian entity that can actually deliver peace. And you saw the riots in the streets the other day as people are rising up against Arafat's own failed leadership."
Brokaw: "When Julian Bond, who's the head of the NAACP, said the other day that the Republican Party's idea of equality is flying the American flag and what he called the 'swastika of the Confederate flag' side by side, did that make it more difficult for you to attract so-called NASCAR dads and other swing voters in America?"
Kerry: "Well, I hope not. I mean, I hope, you know, I think people in America understand that there's an anger in certain people, there's a frustration. I'm feeling it all across the country right now. People are frustrated. They want real problems dealt with, Tom. I'm running for president. I want to be president of all Americans -- Republicans, Democrats, independents -- and so I'm trying to choose language that I think reflects the nature of the role I'm asking Americans to allow me to assume. And I don't agree when we get that kind of anger in our language. We have to stop it."

The July 22 CyberAlert recounted the CBS and NBC Kerry interview segments shown on Wednesday night: Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw were fairly tough with John Kerry in excerpts of taped interviews with him run on their Wednesday night newscasts, with Rather prompting him to react to Bush campaign attacks on him and raising process questions about Ralph Nader while Brokaw offered the more substantively serious questions of the two. Brokaw wondered whether there has also been a "failure of the United States Senate as well in its oversight of those agencies, the FBI and the CIA?" and he countered a bit of Kerry mantra on Iraq: "I've talked to a lot of European leaders and officials at the United Nations. Their resistance to getting involved is firm and deep, and it doesn't have to do just with George Bush." CBS's on- screen plug: "Candid Kerry." Rather teased: "John Kerry blasts President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and the war on terror." Rather prompted Kerry to describe himself "in three to five words." Kerry asserted: "Incredibly loyal. A fighter. Passionate. Caring." See: www.mediaresearch.org

Reporters Over-Simplify Commission Finding
on Iraq-al-Qaeda Ties

At the 9/11 Commission press conference on Thursday, Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard noted how the 9/11 Commission changed its language from the staff report's statement of "no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al-Qaeda the final report's characterization of "no collaborative operational relationship with regard to the attacks on the United States." Chairman Tom Kean confirmed that "there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda." Nonetheless, some prominent media figures distorted the Commission's finding.

On Thursday's Today, Matt Lauer told Tim Russert that "one of the Bush administration's stated reasons for going to war with Iraq, Tim, was the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. This report says they have not found that connection but they do talk about Iran..." Russert failed to clarify the matter.

Neither ABC's World News Tonight nor the NBC Nightly News brought up the Iraq-al-Qaeda issue, but on the CBS Evening News, Jim Stewart ran through how the commission "debunked some 9/11 myths," including how "the commission said emphatically that although Iraq may have once offered bin Laden safe haven, it found no connection between Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda and 9/11." Talk about shooting down a red herring, the Bush administration never claimed Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks. Stewart proceeded to run this clip from Kean as the press conference: "We found no relationship whatever between Iraq and the attack on 9/11. That just doesn't exist."

But that soundbite came at the very end of a much more complex answer. At about 12:12pm EDT, in a portion of the press conference broadcast live by CNN and MSNBC, but not the "right-wing" FNC which was showing John Kerry's address to the Urban League, Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard rose and asked:
"On this question of the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship, it looks as if, in this final report, you, sort of, scaled back some of the language from the staff statement with respect to that finding of 'no collaborative relationship.' This time you say 'no collaborative operational relationship with regard to the attacks on the United States.' I wondered if you might just address that. And then, on the same lines, whether you're talking about Richard Clarke's e-mails contained in this final report or Secretary Cohen's testimony to the commission, it appears that the Clinton administration believed in 1998 and believes today that Iraq provided at least some chemical weapons expertise to al-Qaeda. I wondered if you had a comment on that."

Tom Kean responded: "Well, there was no question in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda. At one point, there was thought maybe even al-Qaeda would find sanctuary in Iraq. And there were conversations that went on over a number of years, sometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessfully. While we don't know about weapons collaboration, particularly chemical collaboration, there was a suspicion in the Clinton administration that when they fired that bomb at that factory, that if in fact, there were chemicals there, they may have come from Iraq. So there was a relationship.
"Having said that, we have found no relationship whatever between Iraq and the attack on 9/11. That just doesn't exist. So I think we are very careful in our wording in using that word 'collaborative relationship.' I mean, that's what we found. It's language that's evidence-based.

Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, who last month scolded the press for mis-reporting on the subject, added: "In further response, I think there's a very large distinction between evidence of conversations that might have occurred between Iraq and al-Qaeda, on the one hand, and an emerging strategy or emerging assistance -- concrete -- on the other. And what we do not have, as the Chairman said, is any evidence of a concrete collaborative operational agreement. Conversations, yes, but nothing concrete."

Fuller rundowns of the assertions from Stewart and Lauer:

-- CBS Evening News, July 22. Jim Stewart, the MRC's Brad Wilmouth noticed, asserted: "The Commission also debunked some 9/11 myths. There was no special treatment for a plane carrying Saudi nationals back home after 9/11, no Saudi royal money went to the hijackers, and to the embarrassment of the White House, the commission said emphatically that although Iraq may have once offered bin Laden safe haven, it found no connection between Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda and 9/11."
Thomas Kean, 9/11 Commission Chairman: "We found no relationship whatever between Iraq and the attack on 9/11. That just doesn't exist."

On Thursday's Today, the MRC's Geoff Dickens observed, Matt Lauer told Tim Russert: "One of the Bush administration's stated reasons for going to war with Iraq, Tim, was the connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. This report says they have not found that connection but they do talk about Iran and Iran perhaps providing passage for many members of al Qaeda. So how is that fact going to influence future U.S. policy?"
Russert: "Well it's quite extraordinary Matt because you remember President Bush originally had included Iran as part of the Axis of Evil. This commission has found the nexus between Saddam Hussein and the hijackers and the terrorists in Iran much stronger than that between Iraq. I think it's going to play out significantly as we try to reconcile our policies with Iran, a country where more than half of the people are under the age of 30 which is beginning to tremor with some democratic reforms. It's gonna be a very delicate balance no matter who the next president is."

The Weekly Standard today posted an article which runs through the ties as listed in several recent reports and investigations. For, "Yes, There Is a Connection: The 9/11 Commission confirms Iraq-al Qaeda ties," by Daniel McKivergan, see: www.weeklystandard.com

For Stephen Hayes' article in the July 26 edition of The Weekly Standard, on what the Senate Intelligence Committee report determined about the links: www.weeklystandard.com

9/11 Commission Report Chides Media for
Inattention to Terrorism

Don't count on seeing much about this in the media anytime soon: Editor & Publisher noticed that the 9/11 Commission report is critical of the news media's inattention to terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. The report zeroed in on a New York Times article in April 1999 which "sought to debunk claims that Bin Laden was a terrorist leader, with the headline 'U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks.'"

An excerpt from the article, "Report Hits Media Coverage of Terrorism Before 9/11," by Charles Geraci, which posted Thursday afternoon on the Editor & Publisher Web site and which the MRC's Jessica Anderson noticed was plugged for a while by the DrudgeReport.com:

....The very end of a chapter titled "Foresight -- And Hindsight," reads, "Between May 2001 and September 11, there was very little in newspapers or on television to heighten anyone's concern about terrorism. Front-page stories touching on the subject dealt with the windup of trials dealing with the East Africa embassy bombings and [Ahmed] Ressam. All this reportage looked backward, describing problems satisfactorily resolved. Back-page notices told of tightened security at embassies and military installations abroad and government cautions against travel to the Arabian Peninsula. All the rest was secret."

The commission also, at one point, appears to castigate the media in general. It says that terrorism, specifically Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, was not an important issue in the 2000 presidential campaign, and the media "called little attention to it" at the time.

At another point, on page 359, it describes how Jordan arrested 16 terrorists planning bombings in that country, including two U.S. citizens, but the news "only made page 13 of The New York Times."

In another brief shot at that paper, the report observes: "It is hard now to recapture the conventional wisdom before 9/11. For example, a New York Times article in April 1999 sought to debunk claims that Bin Laden was a terrorist leader, with the headline 'U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks.'"

The commission also offered an interesting media-related insight regarding pressures on the CIA. In its evaluation of the intelligence agency, the commission reports that starting in the 1990s, the CIA found it had to move more quickly, in response to, and then reflecting, "the culture of the newsroom. During the 1990s, the rise of round-the-clock news shows and the Internet reinforced pressure on analysts to pass along fresh reports to policymakers at an even-faster pace, trying to add context or supplement what their customers were receiving from the media." This led to weaknesses "in all-source and strategic analysis."

In other specific notes, the commission found that after a leak to The Washington Times in 1998, al Qaeda's senior leadership almost immediately stopped a particular method of communication, which made it increasingly difficult to intercept Bin Laden's conversations....

END of Excerpt

For the posting in full: www.editorandpublisher.com

# Coming next week: Twice-daily CyberAlerts documenting coverage of the Democratic convention.

-- Brent Baker