The [tag]New York Times[/tag] ran an item over the weekend about [tag]John Kerry[/tag] and his ongoing effort to debunk the lies spread by the [tag]Swiftboat[/tag] hacks, many of whom are still running around disseminating their nonsense. The Times noted that, as time has elapsed, Kerry has become more emerged in the fight against the group’s smear and has introduced additional evidence that further proves that he was telling the truth all along.
The Times article, however, makes one frustrating observation.
Naval records and accounts from other sailors contradicted almost every claim they made, and some members of the group who had earlier praised Mr. Kerry’s heroism contradicted themselves.
Still, the charges stuck. At a triumphant gathering of veterans in Fort Worth after the election, Mr. O’Neill was introduced as the man who “torpedoed” Mr. Kerry’s campaign; the Swift boat group spent more than $130,000 for a “Mission Accomplished” celebration at Disney World. The president’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, sent a letter thanking the “Swifties” for “their willingness to stand up to John Kerry.” (emphasis added)
These dishonest clowns smeared a war hero with vicious, demonstrable [tag]lies[/tag], to the delight of the Republican establishment. But what does that mean, “the charges stuck”? It’s an oddly passive phrase.
The lies against Kerry didn’t “stick” independently, as if in some kind of political vacuum; they became an issue because news outlets covering the campaign took a “he said, she said” attitude about the lies, without concern for their veracity. As Greg Sargent put it:
To the extent that the Swift Boat Liars were effective — and that’s in dispute — it wasn’t just because of their spending on ads. It was because the media amplified those charges for days and days, if not weeks, without examining them critically. When the press did get around to debunking the charges whatever damage there was had already been done. The media tried to shift blame for this to Kerry by arguing that he’d failed to respond aggressively. But here’s the point: The press shouldn’t have had to wait for Kerry to start hitting back before it started to report critically on what the [tag]Swift Boat[/tag] [tag]Liars[/tag] were saying. The simple fact that the media was amplifying the charges should alone have obligated them to take a critical look at them — immediately.
Quite right. The Swiftboat debacle was a failure on multiple levels, but for the NYT to look back and state plainly that “the charges stuck” to [tag]Kerry[/tag], as if outlets like the Times weren’t partially to blame for the resonance of the attacks, is to only tell half the story.