Shot In The Dark: Markers

August 17, 2004

Markers

The Saint from Fraters notes the deafening silence of the media on Kerry's Excellent Adventure:

The mainstream press's lack of coverage of this story has verged on Sergeant Schultz "I see nothing" level comedy. Following the lead of the New York Times and Washington Post, neither of our local newspapers has given much coverage at all to the story. The Star Tribune addressed it yesterday, but only in the context of "campaign salvos" launched by Republicans, not as a news story worthy of coverage on its own merits. This article, by Bob Von Sternberg, characterizes the allegations by Swiftboat Veterans for Truth as a Michael Moore-like attack, inspired by a "long time Kerry nemesis". It also emphasizes John McCain's denouncing of the SVFT ad campaign and dutifully repeats Democratic party's recent attempts to undermine the credibility of Kerry accusers Joe Corsi and George Elliot.

The whole thing makes me wonder; when this thing does finally explode, the media will be picking shards of its credibility out of the drywall for months. They're not stupid - they have to know this.

Why are they doing it?

It's not because the story isn't out there and accessible. And it's not because they're not smart enough to see where this thing can lead.

I wonder: Does the media think that the hit to their credibility is worth taking to do their bit to get Kerry elected?

I have nothing to go by on this - but I can't think of a better explanation.

Posted by Mitch at August 17, 2004 08:00 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I think blogosphere's shame-fest is working. Today there's a front page story in the STrib. I just about lost my oatmeal when I saw it.

Posted by: Gideon at August 17, 2004 11:14 AM

The silence is due to the shock of the MSM. In their world, all Democrats wear halos and all Republicans sport horns and a tail. The Kerry in Cambodia fraud is just not possible in their minds due to this view. The cognitive dissonance in the MSM must be at an all time high with the Kerry Cambodia thing. So while President Bush "froze" (alledgedly) for 7 minutes on 9/11, they've froze for a whole week as "Kerry + Cambodia = Fraud" does not compute in their world.

Or maybe they are not covering it because they are tired. Carrying water for the Democrats all these years has just worn them out.

But most likely they are waiting for Kerry to come up with a workable line of spin so this can all be ignored. That will help quell their bouts with cognitive dissonance.

Posted by: RandMan at August 17, 2004 02:56 PM

I just realized that I don't expect to learn ANYTHING new by reading the Star Tribune, other than on local news. I just read it to see what today's spin is going to be.

Posted by: Steve Meyer at August 17, 2004 04:55 PM