<font size="1">From an email to me from Media Matters for America</font>
<font size="3">Brilliant Disguise:</font> Right-wing activists dressed up as Kerry shipmates, pretended to have dirt on candidate's service; media dutifully reported bogus claims
On August 4, Internet gossip Matt Drudge began hyping a group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," members of which have been attacking John Kerry for months. As Media Matters for America has previously <font color="blue">documented</font>, the organization is made up of longtime Republican activists, at least one of whom was originally recruited by the Nixon administration to smear Kerry. Other members of the group include a doctor who claims to have treated Kerry for wounds (but he wasn't the medical official who signed the relevant medical reports) and another accuser who has previously admitted he had no firsthand knowledge of Kerry and didn't know him personally.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is funded by a wealthy right-wing Texan who is a longtime ally of President George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Swift Boat Veterans is promoted by another longtime Republican operative and consists of right-wing activists who didn't serve alongside Kerry; didn't know him personally, didn't sign his medical reports, and don't have proof to support their vicious attacks.
This sham organization is now running a misleading and dishonest TV advertisement in which its members claim to have "served with" John Kerry, despite the fact that they were not his crewmates. The men who actually did serve with Kerry tell a far different story: As Wall Street Journal columnist Al Hunt noted, "10 of the 11 men who served on his two swift boats all have sworn by John Kerry," and nine were by his side at the Democratic convention. The members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who claim to have served with Kerry are, simply, liars. They weren't on Kerry's boat. They didn't serve alongside him.
After Senator John McCain (R-AZ) denounced the ad as "dishonest and dishonorable," Retired Adm. Roy Hoffmann, head of the Swift Boat group, said they respected McCain's "right to express his opinion and we hope he extends to us the same respect and courtesy, particularly since we served with John Kerry, we knew him well and Sen. McCain did not."
But, as anyone familiar with Hoffmann and his fellow smear artists might have guessed, that was a lie. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in May, "Hoffmann acknowledged he had no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry's claims to valor and said that although Kerry was under his command, he really didn't know Kerry much personally."
That's right: Three months ago, Hoffmann admitted he didn't know Kerry personally and had no firsthand knowledge. Now he claims to have "served with John Kerry" and says he "knew him well." He's lying -- as his own words prove.
Naturally, then, the media has ignored the unfounded allegations, peddled by established liars, that Kerry didn't deserve his Purple Hearts?
Not quite. FOX News Channel and MSNBC aired the group's new ad on August 4, <font color="blue">giving it free air time</font> before it was formally released -- and neglecting to report key facts that expose the group as a fraud. CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and other news outlets all covered the story as well. While some of them reported some information that discredits the organization and its attacks, they led with the Swift Boat group's smears, thus furthering the group's false and despicable message.
But the wind may already have been knocked out of the Swift Boat Vets' sails. Just today, the Boston Globe reported that one of the group members, George Elliot, has <font color="blue">retracted</font>his criticism of Kerry, saying he had made a "terrible mistake." Elliot signed an affidavit, which the anti-Kerry group used to support its allegations; but he now says, "I knew it was wrong. ... In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake."
And Senator John McCain, who like Kerry, is a Vietnam war hero who saw his courageous service to his country subjected to vicious slurs while running against George W. Bush, came out quickly in Kerry's <font color="blue">defense</font>: "I deplore this kind of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat [Kerry] commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire."
David Horowitz, editor-in-chief of the right-wing FrontPageMag.com, also <font color="blue">made outrageous and false claims</font> about John Kerry's Vietnam-era activities this week. Horowitz claimed on C-SPAN that Kerry in the early 1970s thought "that the Communists were just nationalists and basically was happy to see them win." Horowitz claimed this was clear in Kerry's performance during a debate televised on the Dick Cavett show in 1971. The transcript of the show proves that Horowitz is lying; Kerry said nothing of the kind. Kerry did say, later that year, "I don't like Communists," Kerry said. "In fact, I hate them. I hate all totalitarians. I'm totally dedicated to representative, pluralistic, free democracy."
Perhaps that's what Horowitz meant to say: not that Kerry was "happy" to see Communists win, but rather that Kerry "hated" Communists. We can see how such a mistake would be made.
