Listen, this isn't a politics blog and I'm not especially interested in making it one -- but it is a media blog, and every once in awhile a fish passes by that's just too easy and I've gotta haul it into the net.
As you know, I'm sure, by now, there's been some brouha-haing over a 1971 tape ABC turned up that would seem to create some difficulties for Senator Kerry in reconciling various statements he has made over the years over just whose ribbons and or medals he threw back at the Capitol.
As you may also know, this morning the Senator appeared on GMA (apparently others as well) to address this, and it didn't go especially well.
You've seen me write before about the critical importance of narrative framing in determining how a story is pitched, spun, articulated, what have you. Well you won't believe unless you see it (I thought the reader who emailed me about this was kidding) the frame used by the AP -- but, no, not an Onion story. (Don't just look at the headline: you've really got to read the entire thing to get the full effect!)
Update: It's a trend! This one isn't nearly as bad, but this one is in the same league. By my count (and you should check me) the GMA interview comes up in the 20th paragraph. Also noteable: the reporters essentially adopt Kerry's rhetoric, and refer to him having to spend time on this yesterday as a result of an "orchestrated Republican" strategy. Ouch. Charlie Gibson, they're calling you out!
But it's clear what story the press has decided to tell. It isn't "Kerry, in trouble, tries a hail Mary for a diversion." Instead it's "Kerry reopens debate over Bush's Guard service. Oh, and there's something in here about some medals."
There is just no other way to read this than as a frantic, blatant, all-out attempt to pull Kerry's chestnuts out of the fire. It's as if somebody from the Kerry Campaign called the AP with an emergency request for a media life line. And, of course, AP delivers quicker than Domino's! The other one in the wind is Oliphant coming to Kerry's defense as an eyewitness to the medal tossing event, and assuring us ahead of time that the fact that his daughter just went to work for the Kerry Campaign is irrelevant. (I thought liberals were against preemption!)
Posted by: Byron | April 26, 2004 at 11:37 PM
I read the transcript on the drudge report and then I read this AP article. I set them up in two browser tabs and called my wife over; read this (drudge) and then read this (AP). Believe it or not the second one is describing the first !! She was, as I was, flabbergasted. Every so often you can find a pair of articles like this that perfectly illustrates the incompetence and bias of our major media - breathtaking...
terry g.
Posted by: terry g | April 27, 2004 at 03:42 AM
The NY Times headline is breathtakingly dishonest:
"Kerry Questions Bush Attendance in Guard in 70's"
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JODI WILGOREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/politics/campaign/27CHEN.html
This headline appears on the front page in today's paper, above the fold.
This is the 'Newspaper of Record' my a**.
If this was a one-off incident, it could be written off as mere
sloppiness. But it is not.
This is an ongoing, well-documented pattern from the NY Times.
Posted by: Media Hound | April 27, 2004 at 10:56 AM