Patterico's Pontifications

11/1/2006

The Inside Story Of How The John Kerry ‘Stuck In Iraq’ Controversy Broke In The National Media

Filed under: Blogging Matters,Current Events,General,Politics — Justin Levine @ 8:50 pm



[posted by Justin Levine – Not Patterico] 

Reasonable people can disagree about how to interpret John Kerry’s recent remarks. Others can reasonably disagree about how important a story it actually is.

But regardless of these issues, the inside story of how all of this became a national controversy is important reading to illustrate once again just how the news business has changed in the information age – and how each of you now have the potential to determine the news cycle.

“I quickly asked my producer Lisa Goich whether we were, in fact, taping Channel 4 and thankfully she told me we were. We then found the clip and realized that what I thought I heard Kerry say was exactly what he had really said. Everyone on my show, as well as Justin Levine a producer for Bill Handel’s morning show, agreed that this statement was outrageous and very news worthy.”

I suppose my very small part in it can be described (at best) as a “footnote of a footnote” – but whatever.

[posted by Justin Levine]

17 Responses to “The Inside Story Of How The John Kerry ‘Stuck In Iraq’ Controversy Broke In The National Media”

  1. It’s amazing to think of the “What ifs” that could have kept this story out of the national news. In fact, it’s almost Halloween spooky.

    DRJ (1be297)

  2. John Kerry still cant get over that fact that the swiftboat vets exposed his dirty little secrets in the book UNFIT FOR COMMAND just time any typical liberal left-wing demacrat

    krazy kagu (52a738)

  3. Yep, it is interesting just how a story starts today. If it is about Republicans, the MSM starts the story, if it is about the Democrats, the blogs start the story…hmmm…something wrong here.

    From my point of view, whoever starts the story, it will be or not be a story depending upon the resonance of the facts. Just as it should be…

    Don’t let the MSM drive the news…

    deagle (cf6421)

  4. I accept Kerry’s explanation because that’s the one that makes the most sense. In fact, the standard BushBot explanation makes no sense. And, I refer you to this: “We believe that Kerry was referring to Bush because he’s used a similar formulation in our presence before and quite clearly meant to call Bush a dummy.”

    And, another facet to this is Bush’s disgusting use of this smear, which occured after Kerry or a rep had given his explanation and which did not even mention that Kerry had given said explanation. That type of behavior should be below a U.S. president, but, obviously, Bush is different.

    And, the reason this smear took off is because it’s easy to understand, it’s easy to restate, and it plays into stereotypes about Kerry.

    Many much more important stories never make it to Drudge or even further down, including one that both Ziegler and Bill Handel (who Levine works for) discussed: the letter that CA Secretary of State sent to 14,000 Hispanics regarding an earlier letter they’d received warning them that non-citizens can’t vote. In the SoS’s letter, the logos of two illegal immigration-supporting groups (MALDEF and NCLR) were even larger than the CA state seal. And, the first has at least one indirect link to the Mexican government, and the second funds and has links to extremists. Now, the CA SoS has given them legitimacy and included their logos in an official state letter. And, he probably did that on the advice of one of Arnold’s Rove-linked advisors.

    Perhaps bloggers might consider covering the more important stories and leaving the trivial smears to president Bush.

    About Bruce "MALDEF" McPherson (05c6a0)

  5. John Kerry is being bashed because he blew a
    punch line.

    When he made that joke, he was trying to make the
    following point: Because George Bush failed to
    do his homework, we are now stuck in Iraq. He
    was not trying to insult the intelligence of our
    troops.

    Instead of bashing Kerry for a botched joke,
    perhaps we should be asking the question: Did
    George Bush do his homework?

    Bush under estimated the terrorist threat in
    Iraq, despite the fact that he went there to
    fight terrorism. He under estimated the
    sectarian violence, despite the fact that Iraq is
    composed of three ethnic groups who dislike each
    other. And he under estimated the number of
    troops needed in Iraq, ignoring the advice of a
    number of his top military people. As a result,
    there was no adequate plan to win the peace in
    Iraq, and no adequate means to secure that peace.

    Apparently, George Bush failed to do his homework.

    Perhaps, George Bush who should apologize to our
    troops for that failure. They are paying a heavy
    price because of it.

    And so is our nation.

    This issue boils down to the following: “botched
    joke by John Kerry” versus “botched policy in
    Iraq by George Bush”.

    And one last thought. If George Bush failed to
    do his homework on Iraq, did he fail to do his
    homework on how to combat the terrorist threat?

    Ralph (a2365f)

  6. Wow…these last two comments show just how dedicated the left is to Kerry.

    Come on folks, he has been making similar statements about the military for 35 years… Just when will you believe him! As far as I am concerned, he lost me during and immediately after the Vietnam War.

    deagle (cf6421)

  7. New media rocks! Buy Ziegler a beer for me, would you Justin?

    Lefties, this will help with your BDS. John Kerry:

    If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy.

    Also John Kerry:

    They told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

    John Kerry, 1971:

    In our opinion and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.

    John Kerry, 10/11/2002, voting to authorize the use of military force in Iraq:

    Yea

    Pablo (08e1e8)

  8. Ralph

    How many sites are you cutting and pasting those prepared words?

    If someone “botches” a joke, they know it immediately by audience reaction.

    Kerry really didn’t “hear” the gasps because he, like most of the left, truely holds the military in contempt. Always has.

    Darleen (03346c)

  9. An aside,Justin?

    I love Handel. I’ve been listening to him since before the twins were even born.

    But I only listen to him on the weekends now because I cannot stand sportscaster Rich Marotta since he went Cindy Sheehan.

    Who does Rich think he is? Keith Olberman?

    Darleen (03346c)

  10. It seems pretty simple to me. If Kerry botched a joke then we should look at his previous speeches and see if and how often he told the other Bush jokes – denial etc. – and the one about education. It seems that this would benefit one side or the other so I don’t see how it doesn’t come out.

    On the other hand, maybe the only group that has all of Kerry’s spoken words is the Kerry camp. Which means we’ll only hear anything if Kerry can point to other times he told the same joke. Otherwise you have to believe he botched a joke he was debuting. And it just gets more and more implausible from there.

    I don’t hate Kerry – he is what he is: a Northern anti-military liberal. But I’m still astonished that the Dems thought he would be a good choice for President. I thought it was an insult to all veterans, or at least to me, that they would nominate a Winter Soldier leader. Un. Freaking. Believable. As silly as it sounds, Sharpton would have been a better choice.

    Sweetie (901f54)

  11. Justin:

    I listen every morning and love the show, but I think Bill was wrong in his analysis of the Kerry comments and what the impact is on current and former military members.

    Oh and you guys can’t get an intern to fly for breakfast, what gives?

    Gabriel Chapman (6d7447)

  12. In the past couple of days, as the GOP and right-wing media were distorting and making much of Kerry’s botched joke, a couple of other stories received very little attention. And no, they weren’t posted on Patterico’s blog either.

    First, the Iraqis dismantled U.S. checkpoints that were aiding the search for the reportedly kidnapped U.S. serviceman in and around Sadr City in Baghdad. When asked about it, Der Commandant Rumsfeld hadn’t even heard about it.

    Second, there is video of Allen staffers manhandling and assaulting a law student, admittedly not an Allen fan, asking him questions about his arrest record and allegations about him spitting on his first wife. Allen watches the attack and does nothing to call off his henchmen.

    Go get ’em, GOP! Drink that Kool-Aid!!

    nosh (ee9fe2)

  13. Second, there is video of Allen staffers manhandling and assaulting a law student, admittedly not an Allen fan, asking him questions about his arrest record and allegations about him spitting on his first wife.

    …is not the same as screaming “Why did you spit on your wife?” at a guy who is trying to give a speech.

    It was thuggery well met, IMHO. Glad to see you leftards come right out and endorse it, tho.

    Pablo (cb50c5)

  14. Second, there is video of Allen staffers manhandling and assaulting a law student, admittedly not an Allen fan, asking him questions about his arrest record and allegations about him spitting on his first wife.

    And what that video doesn’t show you is the raving idiot Stark roughing up an Allen staffer in his attempt to get into his face. Of course, none of Team Lefty’s faux outrage even begins to address the falsehood of Starks “spitting” story.

    Of course only pushing half of the story fits well with todays talking points.

    Gabriel Chapman (6d7447)

  15. Yep, Kool-Aid drinkers, that was the important point. Sure, defending the Stark incident makes the utter lunacy in Iraq fade to the background.

    Der Commandant Rumsfeld does not even know that our checkpoints are being disabled. So this administration rewards his incompetence by renewing his contract for two-plus more years.

    nosh (ee9fe2)

  16. deagle says: Wow…these last two comments show just how dedicated the left is to Kerry.

    What makes you think I’m of the left, deagle? Plenty of people put truth before lies and put country before party. That doesn’t mean they’re on the left, now does it?

    If Bush’s top advisor gives legitimacy to a far-left organization that funds and has links to Chicano racial separatists, what side does that put Bush on?

    About Bruce "MALDEF" McPherson (05c6a0)

  17. Good to know you got the talking points, nosh. Now just start harping on the “civility” issue and you’ll have a trifecta.

    sharon (dfeb10)


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