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Press Blows Up the Kerry Story, Honest Debate Gets Smacked Down

News Type: Event — Seeded on Fri Nov 3, 2006 9:54 AM EST
Read ArticleArticle Source: Colubia Jounalism Daily
politics, bush, united-states, media, republican, kerry
Seeded by Catch22

He left out a two-letter word, "us." What he meant to say, what his prepared remarks have him saying is this: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

It's almost impossible to believe that the omission of one tiny word could create such noise. But, as we all know by now, John Kerry's "blundered joke" on Monday afternoon has ricocheted through the media many times over in the past two days, and, incredible as it seems, becoming a factor in next week's midterm election.

The reason Kerry's comment has passed before our eyes so many times--rather than, say, something of substance--is that Republicans, from Bush on down, gleefully took the misspoken words at face value, implying that somehow Kerry, a decorated veteran, hates the military, and repeated them over and over again. The vice president, truly outdoing himself, even managed to rehash one of the great laugh lines of 2004: "Senator Kerry said he was just making a joke and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. Actually, he was for the joke before he was against it."

The press dutifully and mindlessly leaped onto the new controversy, with no thought to how it shed absolutely no light on any of the issues that actually matter in these midterms.
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What saddens us most about the election coverage this year, and we've said it before, is that the press spends too much time bogged down in faux news like the Kerry thing, when there is so much at stake. Iraq, alone, should have elicited a spirited and interesting debate. The public is engaged on a number of issues, but Iraq tops nearly everyone's list. The press can't force candidates to debate something they want desperately to avoid, but it can try to minimize its complicity in the attempts--by both sides, we should add, though in this election overwhelmingly from embattled Republicans--to change the subject or ignore it altogether. And when the press is complicit, it should be honest and transparent enough to say so.

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Catch22

Olberman Special Comment

Senator Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor, he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial.

He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education — that quote "if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you can get stuck in Iraq."

The Senator, in essence, called Mr. Bush stupid.

The context was unmistakable: Texas;the state of denial;stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required.

And Mr. Bush and his minions responded, by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid.

They demanded Kerry apologize — to the troops in Iraq.
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A brief reminder, Mr. Bush: You are not the United States of America.

You are merely a politician whose entire legacy will have been a willingness to make anything political — to have, in this case, refused to acknowledge that the insult wasn't about the troops, and that the insult was not even truly about you either — that the insult, in fact, is you.

So now John Kerry has apologized to the troops; apologized for the Republicans' deliberate distortions.

Thus the President will now begin the apologies he owes our troops, right?

This President must apologize to the troops — for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, quote "look like just a comma."

This President must apologize to the troops — because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong.

This President must apologize to the troops — for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence, at a banquet, while our troops were in harm's way.

This President must apologize to the troops — because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators.

This President must apologize to the troops — because his administration ran out of "plan" after barely two months.

This President must apologize to the troops — for getting 2,815 of them killed.

This President must apologize to the troops — for getting this country into a war without a clue.

And Mr. Bush owes us an apology… for this destructive and omnivorous presidency.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/01/olbermanns-special-comment-there-is-no-line-this-president-has-not-crossed-nor-will-not-cross-to-keep-one-political-party-in-power/

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Reply#1 - Fri Nov 3, 2006 10:05 AM EST