Brilliant smackdown of MSM's misrepresentation of JK's speech

[dwahzon]

The press manufactures John Kerry's tears

by Eric Boehlert

The Barack Obama madrassa hoax isn't the only recent, dishonest campaign story that deserves close scrutiny. Another, perhaps even more disturbing, press deception revolved around Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and the announcement he made from the floor of the Senate on January 24 that he would not run for president in 2008. Disturbing, because the fraud did not involve Fox News or the right-wing InsightMag.com but instead was driven by mainstream media outlets.

Kerry's speech, which was mocked in the press for being poorly stage managed (it was too wordy, pundits complained), was also badly mangled by scores of major news players who concocted the phony storyline that Kerry had shed tears of regret while announcing his plans to sit out the 2008 race.

Kerry did no such thing, but reporters and pundits went ahead and manufactured the narrative that the "emotional" and "choked up" senator became "tearful" as he publicly "let go of his White House dreams." None of that was accurate. Kerry did become temporarily emotional, but not while he was discussing his political ambitions.

...

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200701300006

Next to the article which is well worth the trip to read is a contact list with names, etc., of the MSM people Boehlert calls out in the article. Might be worth a few letters.

[ProSense]

1. I like your title better.

Posted in GD-P.

Will work on that letter, good idea. Thanks!

[beachmom]

2. The press is so lazy -- they completely missed that he was choked

up about the mess in Iraq and fears that a new war with Iran may happen!! I'm going over to Media Matters to read it now.

[dwahzon]

3. I forgot to say

that I owe a hattip to markos.

This is on his Midday Open Thread roundup

The press makes up shit about Kerry. He should be thankful they won't have him to kick around anymore.

[beachmom]

6. Thanks. You know what is most surprising is for me personally.

None of this made me blink an eye when it happened. OF COURSE, they'd lie about John Kerry, as usual. All I can say is thank God for blogs.

[karynnj]

10. That article was amazing

I spent most of that day after the Senate ended with the TV off. i saw Fiesprint's warning not to watch tv. I absolutely can't believe that Tucker Carlson could say something like:

"How else to explain the fact that MSNBC's Carlson not only made up facts about Kerry crying on the Senate floor but then suggested it would have been best if, as in the final scene from Of Mice and Men, somebody simply took a gun and shot Kerry as a mercy killing. "Just blow[] him into the next world," as Carlson put it. "

What a little jerk. Would he still be on TV if he said this about Bush? or Cheney? This is sick.
He also said the speech was like Fidel Castro's. Now, I've never heard Castro, but I doubt it. Clearly he has no decency. and he needs to be fired.





"

[beachmom]

11. That is awful. F***, that's awful. I read through that but didn't

take time to dwell on it. But your highlighting it shows how bad American TV has gotten.

[karynnj]

16. I sent a letter to MSNBC that will likely go into the garbage can

I also sent one to Olberman - he should give his MSNBC colleaque worst person in the world - though it may not be timely enough.

I think that is so much of the problem. In 2004, when these creeps sat there and thought the purpleheart bandaids were ok politics, it really sent subconscious signals that Kerry deserved no respect. With Teresa they were even worse - and she had no forum to correct it. This country really deserves what it gets - when someone like this ridiculous man gets to sit in judgement on someone with the gravitas and merit of either Kerry.

[ginnyinWI]

12. that little creep!

That's the height of irresponsibility. Who does he think he is, Ann Coulter? He's just as bad! He's always shooting his mouth off about stuff he knows absolutely--and I mean absolutely nothing about. Like O'Reilly, Limbaugh. Ugh!!!

MSNBC should get rid of the little :puke:

[JanusAscending]

15. He is "invested" in this!!

Don't forget who his DADDY is !!!! I can't stand the little bastard!!

[Island Blue]

13. OMG! That is beyond despicable.

And the little f*cker still has a job? I'm glad I didn't hear that come out of his mouth. I don't think my blood pressure could have handled it.

As for the presidency, I'm beginning to think that perhaps the job is beneath Senator Kerry. Ever since Ronald Reagan took office, the job seems to be more about looking "manly" riding horses, throwing up in the lap of foreign dignitaries, staring unnecessary wars with countries who have not provoked us, aiding and abetting terrorists, performing sexual acts in the Oval Office, covering up for those who have aided and abetted terrorists, choking on snack foods, starting more unnecessary wars and falling off bicycles. I think Senator Kerry is better than that.

[whometense]

17. I've been thinking similar thoughts:

As for the presidency, I'm beginning to think that perhaps the job is beneath Senator Kerry.

Seriously. I imagine there came a moment in Kerry's thinking when he said to himself, "is it worth it?"

He and Gore are both too decent for the job.

[ginnyinWI]

23. seems that way.

He is too good for it. Evidently too honest for a lot of people inside and outside of Washington, and too sincere and dedicated for the average person--they think he must be a phony somehow. I agree--both Kerry and Gore are decent men--there are a few left in public life. A few more I can think of are Teddy Kennedy, Robert Byrd and yes--John Warner.

[karynnj]

18. I love that last paragraph

I just wish MSNBC were not cable - because then the FCC would have jurisdiction.

[Inuca]

19. WHAAATTT????

He said that?? That's light years beyond outrageous! As for Castro, I have no idea what the little asshole meant, but from what I know he is/used to be a great public speaker.

[JanusAscending]

14. They will keep doing it anyway....just because!!

They tried to twist his words today, on faux news, pertaining to the way the world sees us (as pariahs) which he spoke of while at Devos. I swear to God, they just can't stand it when someone has a brain and can tell the truth without the spin!!

[whometense]

4. Boehlert gets it again.

Thanks for the link. He and Jamison Foser are treasures.

For the record, at no point did Kerry shed any tears on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday; he simply did not "cry." Rather, during a single sentence Kerry became emotional and his voice caught. The press' key distortion though, was that the single sentence had nothing to do with running for president again. Instead, Kerry was momentarily overcome with emotion when he noted that the misguided war in Iraq threatened to undo everything he had fought for since his return from Vietnam more than three decades ago.

Much as I love Jon Stewart, he was among those mocking Kerry for his "too wordy" speech. The fact that the political announcement came as a brief statement at the end of a long speech about Iraq seems to have escaped the wags' notice.

[blm]

5. This needs to be put up in GDP. People better wake up to the the media games

.

[ProSense]

7. Already posted

See link at post #1.

[beachmom]

8. Jon Stewart has gotten Kerry wrong from the start. But he has

a better excuse: he's not a newsman and he's a comedian.

[whometense]

9. That's why I keep watching the show.

And he's an equal opportunity offender.

[TayTay]

20. And still people say it doesn't matter, what's the big deal

Honestly, what is wrong with some people.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3086937&mesg_id=3087766

[beachmom]

21. Great post, but now it's confession time from me.

I just looked at my diary more carefully, and what I speculated was that he was sad both for himself AND for the endless war that he must fight yet again. In my own mind (not in the diary), I took it that it was almost a second grieving of the 2004 loss, and that a possible war with Iran would have been completely averted had Kerry been elected. And now that he's not running, he must do his duty in the Senate, and there is no chance for him to right those wrongs, at least from the executive. His wanting of the presidential office was BECAUSE of those causes he holds dear. Either way, the MSM got it wrong.

[wildflowergardener]

22. ok

Maybe I am totally clueless, but I have listened to that speech three times, and I still think he could have both been upset about the war and ending his dream to be president.

I haven't asked Senator Kerry, so I have no way of knowing why exactly he was upset. All I know is what I thought at the time when I saw the speech, which was that he was sad that he was ending his dream. What those people said (esp. Tucker) was rotten, and making fun of him was wrong as they do again and again.

But I don't consider myself a stupid person and it seemed to me that he got emotional at the end of the speech, and it was during the section of the speech, where he was announcing he was not running - not right when he said it, but a bit afterwards so I think it could have been both.

But do I claim to know one way or another - no. I don't think anyone can really know, but Senator Kerry. Is it possible that they could have just been mistaken like maybe I was?

I know I am probably giving too much credit to the media here.

Of course I also might be angrier if I'd actually read all of the articles that were talking about this. I've been pretty much avoiding anything negative about Senator Kerry for awhile now. I know they are out there, but I don't want to read them.

Meg

[ginnyinWI]

25. I can see what you mean, but

I concluded that what really gets him in the gut more than anything is thinking about his life-long struggle against unjustices like horrible wars started by "craven little men" (that's from a speech he gave in '71).

I believe that he has a very strong sense of wanting to correct injustice and help those in need, and that the roots of feeling surrounding the Vietnam war go especially deep, since he's carried the emotional scars from it his whole life. And now to see it being repeated, and seeing the suffering in returning troops first-hand--that has to be particularly unbearable for JK and for other sensitive VN vets. Seeing it all happening again.

I speculate that he has deeper feelings about this than his own presidential ambitions. Certainly for a much longer time. And I think that his decision not to run was probably made at least several days before, so he'd have had time to settle his thinking on it. Just my take on it.

[ginnyinWI]

24. some very good points in last four pphs:

which bear reproducing here:

The truth is, what Kerry did during his eloquent and passionate critique of the war last Wednesday was what our Founding Fathers hoped U.S. senators would use the chamber for: to speak in depth about the difficult issues facing the day. What the press was doing, I have no idea. Indeed, the same Founding Fathers, who brilliantly carved out a unique role for the free press in our democracy, would have been stunned if they had witnessed Kerry's address and then read the fictionalized accounts of him allegedly breaking down in tears on the Senate floor.

Lastly, note the other manufactured theme that popped up in the Kerry coverage last week -- that Kerry didn't win in 2004 because voters did not know where he stood regarding Iraq.

"He lost the presidential election largely because of his inability to articulate what he really thought about the war," wrote Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker, making the point several other pundits did. That has become the media's accepted conventional wisdom. Much of that is driven by the fact Republicans turned Kerry's 2004 comment, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," into a rhetorical club and to portray Kerry as a flip-flopper. So yes, Republicans, along with the obedient press corps, insisted -- and continue to insist -- that Kerry's position on the war in 2004 was muddled. But was it?

I recall a certain catchphrase Kerry used during the campaign to describe Iraq. He called it the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time. (Kerry used that exact phrase in his Wednesday speech in the Senate.) And a search of the Nexis database yields more than 1,600 news references from the 2004 campaign that mentioned Kerry as well as the three phrases "wrong war," "wrong place" and "wrong time." That's because Kerry repeated the mantra at nearly every possible public appearance during the final months of the campaign. But now the press tells us Kerry never articulated a clear position about the war.

Then again, it's the same press corps that last week told us Kerry was crying on the floor of the Senate.

Excellent article. He credits the Chicago Trib for getting it right--a bit surprising since they are a fairly conservative paper. But they are not a rag--they have some integrity.

[MBS]

26. It's about time n/t