Patterico Seeks Yet Another Correction from the Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times reports this morning: Kerry Starts Firing Back at Critics of War Record. The front-page article makes this incorrect statement:
None of the men in the Swift boat group behind the anti-Kerry ad, including [Larry] Thurlow, served on Kerry’s patrol boat during the war.
Wrong.
It is widely known that one of Kerry’s former crewmates, Steven Gardner, is a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Here is a statement from Gardner that has been reproduced on the Vets’ web site:
“My name is Steve Gardner. I served in 1966 and 1967 on my first tour of duty in Vietnam on Swift boats, and I did my second tour in ‘68 and ‘69, involved with John Kerry in the last 2 1/2 months of my tour. The John Kerry that I know is not the John Kerry that everybody else is portraying. I served alongside him and behind him, five feet away from him in a gun tub, and watched as he made indecisive moves with our boat, put our boats in jeopardy, put our crews in jeopardy… if a man like that can’t handle that 6-man crew boat, how can you expect him to be our Commander-in-Chief?”
– Steven Gardner
Hmmm. I’m no history expert, but 1968 and 1969 sure sound like “during the war” to me.
The L.A. Times’s hit piece on the Vets from August 17 acknowledges that Gardner is a member of the Swift Boat group, and indeed served on one of Kerry’s boats during the war:
Steven Gardner, the only member of Kerry’s former crews to join Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and actively campaign against Kerry, has told some reporters that PCF-44 was 50 miles away from Cambodia that Christmas Eve.
Simply put, the Times has goofed. Again.
What makes this mistake especially odd is that the August 17 piece, which acknowledged Gardner’s service as one of Kerry’s crewmates during the war, was co-written by Maria L. LaGanga — who is also one of the co-authors of today’s piece denying that any Swift Boat Vet served on one of Kerry’s boats.
How curious.
I have written the following e-mail to Jamie Gold, the “Readers’ Representative” at the Los Angeles Times:
Dear Ms. Gold,
A front-page story in today’s L.A. Times titled “Kerry Starts Firing Back at Critics of War Record” (August 20) states: “None of the men in the Swift boat group behind the anti-Kerry ad, including [Larry] Thurlow, served on Kerry’s patrol boat during the war.”
This is not true.
As an article in your paper’s August 17 edition acknowledges, Steven Gardner, a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, served on one of Kerry’s patrol boats during the war.
This merits a correction.
Sincerely,
Patrick Frey
Patterico’s Pontifications
http://patterico.com
As always, I’ll keep you up to date on any response.
Do you seriously think that the big press is interested in telling the truth? These are all reporters who know what they are doing, and what they are doing is campaigning for Kerry because their editors and publishers want to beat Bush and want to slant the coverage.
I haven’t read the LA Times for five or so years; same for NY Times. I know they slant the news. People who read these rags must also know it by now. What we have is a Big Media preaching to the people who want to their biases re-enforced.
The one mistake you guys who continually jump on the papers make is to think that this bias is new. It isn’t. Read papers from the last century up thru WWII. The “opinion” that somehow the major media has been giving us straight news is the propaganda put out by that same media that they were telling us the truth. The LA Times Calander section is just the propaganda arm of the extreme Left and the Hollywood corporate elite.
I live in LA as you do. Talk radio the day after the Swift Boaters hit TV with their ad campaign was nothing but Swift Boat. The same with the web. Everybody with a car radio had to know, which means everybody in SoCal knew by 6PM the next day.
We now get our “news” from talk radio, the web, and TV (and most of my liberal friends also watch
FOX). LA is Left in spite of knowing the truth.
That’s the way it is.
Comment by Howard Veit — 8/21/2004 @ 4:20 am
Sadly, there are still many people who do believe
the comments made on the television and written in the NYT are true.
That is the problem for anyone who is trying to
do something like the Swiftvets, and they knew
going int hat the NYTs, Washpost and other newspapers affiliated with the NYT would be fighing back in their usual biased liberal way.
People believe the likes of Jennings, Brokow,
Rather, and other MSM because they do not
realize they are being told the biased news,
the news they decide is fit to be on their
programs.
These are the people that have to be taught the
facts about the papers, television. Sad, but true.
Like you I never watch the news, I go to the
internet and find the facts, different opinions
and stories that will never make the MSM.
Their power is diminished, as more and more
people go to the net and I think this story is
pointing out this fact more each day. The trust
is totally gone, and that is certainly sad.
Comment by cjg — 8/21/2004 @ 5:58 am
It is now official: The Kerry campaign for President is dead. It will still gasp and moan for a bit thanks to life-support from Soros, the NY Times and its evil mini-me the LA Times, but it’s dead. The Swiftees have served their country once again in its time of need. God bless them.
Comment by Lewis — 8/21/2004 @ 8:45 am
Senator Whiny
John Kerry has no problem with moveon.org-style ads that portray Bush as Hitler. He lauds Michael Moore’s film that portrays American troops as racist jackbooted thugs. He asserts that these are independent groups that he has no control over. Yet…
Trackback by The Interocitor — 8/21/2004 @ 9:21 am
Senator Whiney
John Kerry has no problem with moveon.org-style ads that portray Bush as Hitler. He lauds Michael Moore’s film that portrays American troops as racist jackbooted thugs. He asserts that these are independent groups that he has no control over. Yet…
Trackback by The Interocitor — 8/21/2004 @ 9:21 am
man, Patrick! You’re a helluva lot nicer about this than I would be
Comment by Frank G — 8/21/2004 @ 6:05 pm
The Tet holiday was often celebrated much like the Christams holiday. The boat Kerry was on was indeed in Cambodia during the Tet holiday. And yes we weren’t supposed to be inside Laos or Cambodia but we went sometimes anyways.
Most of those professing to be SBV were no actually on Kerry’s boat, and worse yet most were not even on any Swift Boat but instead were upper echelon commanders who had no real idea of what happened outside of reports sent to them back at HQ.
Shame is they lie. The need for them to lie should shame all Republicans. The fact Bush has not and will not ever fully explain his own military service is another reason these “vets” should be ashamed. Why has no one yet claimed the 100k prize for proving Bush was ever in Alabama when he said he was?
Sorry Patterico. I once read your writings with the thought they could often be trusted to be fact checked. But the last few months show you instead as one who backs a liar, a group of liars, and as such I feel your own word, your own integrity has been lost. Please try to regain that integrity.
Feel free to comb over my web site for basic flaws. I offer my opinions as opinions and pull no punches when it comes to Kerry being a mealy mouthed Washigton politician. Your current trend of backing Bush and SBVFT without offering the same amount of diligent fact checking you afford the Kerry campaign has shown a lack of integrity, or at the least a blind eyed bias.
Lets go back to bashing all the liars for being what they are. Spare none of them. America deserves better than either of the candidates we’re being allowed to vote for.
Sincerly. Some Drunk.
Comment by IXLNXS — 8/22/2004 @ 12:42 pm
IXLNXS,
You aren’t reading very carefully. Don’t worry. It’s a common mistake.
I don’t know how many times I have to say “I don’t know whether the Vets are telling the truth” before some of you get it.
What I don’t like is media blackouts and distortion. That’s mostly what I write about.
Comment by Patterico — 8/22/2004 @ 1:01 pm
Also:
If you find any facts on my site that are wrong, tell me. Unlike newspapers, we correct facts here in a prompt, straightforward, and sufficiently prominent manner.
But please don’t make these accusations of poor fact-checking without specifics.
Comment by Patterico — 8/22/2004 @ 1:21 pm
A minor slip - the Los Angeles Times was right in spirit, if it was wrong in its actual wording.
After all, Steve Gardner didn’t actually witness the events for which Kerry won his medals and Purple Hearts.
‘Gardner admitted that “he was not on the boat with Kerry during the incidents for which Kerry got his medals,” reported The Columbus Dispatch on August 6. And as a guest on Michael Savage’s radio show, Savage Nation, on August 2, Gardner said that of Kerry’s three Purple Hearts, he could only attest to the first; Gardner later admitted to Savage that he was “not on the boat with him [Kerry]” when that injury occurred.’
http://mediamatters.org/items/200408240001
Comment by m.croche — 8/24/2004 @ 11:15 am
Source, please? Captain Ed finds otherwise.
More generally, unless you have proof that the vets are lying, you have no business branding them as liars. Shame on you.
Comment by Xrlq — 8/24/2004 @ 12:21 pm
S’okay. I still read and notice you mentioned at least a few of the questions surrounding SBVFB or whatever the acronym is now.
I’m also willing to agree that there is media bias of the ad on both channels. We know who we’re talking about here. But have you ever really considered the similarities between the two stations, the two political camps, and pro wrestling?
Keep up the good works.
Comment by IXLNXS — 8/24/2004 @ 4:31 pm
Croche: the paper was right “in spirit” though its words were wrong? And that’s good enough for you?
Don’t you care about accuracy? Not everyone who reads these stories is as up to date as we are. Many people could have been tricked by the false claim the Times made.
Comment by Patterico — 8/26/2004 @ 11:34 pm
Patterico Continues To Keep The LA Times Honest
One of my good blogfriends, Patterico from Patterico’s Pontifications, has done remarkable work over a long period of time documenting the bias and carelessness that has become routine for the Los Angeles Times. When the paper asserted last week that…
Trackback by Captain's Quarters — 8/27/2004 @ 7:21 am
Changing the subject but need help. I hear the Winter Soldier book is being hidden. Then I heard it is on the net. Any idea where it is located?
Comment by the dude — 8/27/2004 @ 9:36 am
Bear Flagger Brings Times to Knees
The big news of the week, though you won’t see it on the National Networks, is that the Los Angeles Times has surrendered on the field of Political Battle. To a tenacious member of the Bear Flag League (…
Trackback by Sneakeasy's Joint — 8/27/2004 @ 10:56 am
Bear Flagger Brings Times to Knees
The big news of the week, though you won’t see it on the National Networks, is that the Los Angeles Times has surrendered on the field of Political Battle. To a tenacious member of the Bear Flag League (…
Trackback by Sneakeasy's Joint — 8/27/2004 @ 10:56 am
Are you referring to Kerry’s “The New Soldier”?
http://johnkerrythenewsoldier.blogspot.com/
Comment by dub — 8/27/2004 @ 2:26 pm