On page A24 of today’s local Los Angeles Dog Trainer, the intrepid reader can find a story titled Vietnam War-Era Photo Seen as a Bid to Tarnish Kerry.

Can you imagine the nerve of those right-wing bastards?! Trying to tarnish Kerry like that!

Hanoi Jane and “historian” Douglas Brinkley quickly step in to provide quotes about what a travesty this is. The focus of the entire story is, of course, how the GOP is trying to smear Kerry.

This sort of spin is predictable. But at least the Dog Trainer shows you the photo, right? After all, the whole story is about the photo. They can’t run a whole story about the photo, and not show you the photo. Right?

Wrong.

But I’ll show it to you.

[Note: a second, different photo originally posted here has been removed because it is phony.]

By the way, in the print version of this Dog Trainer story, there is one photo on the page. Although the photo accompanies another story about Kerry, it sits right next to the headline about the “bid” to “tarnish Kerry.” It’s not the photo that is the subject of the story. No. The photo is of John Kerry, standing in front of the American flag, giving a crisp salute.

I am not kidding. Clearly the Dog Trainer editors have formed their opinion about whether this is a legitimate issue, and make no bones about communicating that opinion to their readers on the news pages.

By the way, don’t underestimate the power of photos like these to turn off veterans. For example, when I was growing up, my dad (who was in the military) rarely cursed, but there were three people whose mere mention consistently caused him to utter a string of obscenities: Jane Fonda, Ted Kennedy, and Andy Granatelli (don’t ask).

Kerry’s appeal to most veterans will be irrevocably damaged by photos like these. And perhaps justly so, regardless of what the Dog Trainer editors think.