The Boxing Gloves Are On
Reported by Eleanor - August 25, 2004 -
Studio B with Shepard Smith (Aug. 25, 3:00 p.m.) spent only seven minutes on the smear vets story. Two minutes with Carl Cameron and five minutes with Brit Hume who had interviewed Karl Rove. The content was the "political theater" of the Max Cleland press conference, and Bush had nothing to do with the attack on John Kerry. Amber Frey got more time.
Kerry was offered boxing gloves in Philadelphia. Cameron talked about a "knuckle brawl" as the metaphor for the current discussion about the smear ads, saying that Cleland, "Kerry's top surrogate," had launched a "comprehensive counter attack." Bush wouldn't take the letter, and tried to give Cleland a letter back.
A video clip from Hume's interview of Karl Rove was shown as Rove denied any connection between the Bush campaign and the ads. Hume and Smith discussed Rove's denial, and Hume ended with the observation that Rove is taking a risk if he's not telling the truth because this issue could turn into a lawsuit. Hume observed that journalists have the obligation to cover this story since Kerry brought up Viet Nam service at the convention, and this group says his story is not correct. That makes it a legitimate story.
Comment: Using Hume's logic about a journalist's obligation to get to the bottom of a story, Bush's National Guard service has been questioned a number of times. What happened to the obligation to follow that story with 24/7 coverage until we find out where Bush was during a big chunk of his Viet Nam era service time; why he didn't take his medical test; and why he lost his flying license? At this point in time, nothing is off the table.
Let the boxing metaphor continue for ten more rounds - one round a week for ten weeks sounds about right. In a battle about war service, where both are being questioned about the details, and one served in a shooting war and one didn't, the one being shot at wins. After all, bullets, wounds and medals with official documents to back them up speak louder than one trip to the dentist to prove where you were and what you were doing during war time.
A week ago, I would have said it's time to end this. Now, it's time to show who is really the fraud. When it's over, we'll have a commander-in-chief who knows how to fight and win a battle, even if we don't have time to get into the other issues that are really important in 2004. Expect a knock-out.
