Reality is Partisan!

Once again we see how reality is partisan. For example, these Swift Boat Veterans have made many complaints about Senator John Kerry, detailing specific aspects of his military career that they describe as ignoble or cowardly. Unfortunately for those poor swift boat veterans, reality fails to agree. Other witnesses come forward and contradict their stories. The official Navy Records contradict their stories. In some cases common sense contradicts their stories.

Fortunately, our "liberal" press corps does everything they can to cloud reality so as not to shock those who believe the Swift Boat Veterans. A very good article at Salon by Eric Boehlert dissects the heroic role our reporters and news people are playing in protecting us from the liberal-dominated reality.

A Dallas Observer headline was typical of the shoulder-shrugging quality of the Swift boat coverage: "A group of veterans says John Kerry stretches the truth about his Vietnam service. Whom can you believe? Who knows?" USA Today, ignoring the official Navy records, threw up its hands and announced, "A clear picture of what John Kerry did or did not do in Vietnam 35 years ago may never emerge." Early on in the controversy, ABC's "Nightline" reported: "The Kerry campaign calls the charges wrong, offensive and politically motivated. And points to naval records that seemingly contradict the charges." [Emphasis added.]

Seemingly? A more accurate phrasing would have been that Navy records "completely" or "thoroughly" contradict the Swift Boat Veterans charges that emerged 35 years after the fact. Just this week, a CNN scrawl across the bottom of the screen read, "Several Vietnam veterans are backing Kerry's version of events." Again, a more factual phrasing would have been "Navy records completely back Kerry's version of events.” But that would have meant undermining cable news' hottest story of the summer.

Even when faced with bold-faced Swift Boat Veterans contradictions, the press rarely blinked. In an Aug. 25 dispatch, the Associated Press revealed that in 1971 O'Neill met with President Nixon and told him, "I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border," a conversation captured on the White House's secret taping system. Asked about the quote, which completely contradicts O'Neill’s "Unfit for Command" claim that any soldier, including Kerry, who entered Cambodia would have been court-martialed, O'Neill simply told the AP he never went to Cambodia. The AP then failed to ask the obvious follow-up: What part of "I was in Cambodia," did O'Neill not understand?

Thank goodness for such reporters. Remember, they have to face the mocking slurs of such media watchdog groups as the Daily Howler and Media Matters, but they are standing firm to protect every American's right to believe in the Swift Boat Veterans, without facing any troubling contradictions from "reality." Of course, protecting the Swift Boat Veterans claims from the crushing weight of reality also protects a story they've invested quite a bit of time in promoting and commenting on, so I guess it's a win-win situation from their perspective.