ABC's NIGHTLINE: Truth is the First Casualty.

[MallRat]

From Nightline's daily email:

TONIGHT'S FOCUS: Service in the Vietnam War, or lack of service, has become an issue in this election. John Kerry is running on his service record, the President is still dogged by questions about his service in the National Guard. Now there are veterans for Kerry, and veterans against him.

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I am amazed at how angry people are these days. There is a group out there called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They have launched an ad attacking John Kerry's service in Vietnam. They have paid to run the ad in only three states, figuring, quite correctly, that they would get lots of free coverage on news shows. Now there are some interesting things about this group. There are connections to the Republican Party, one of the veterans who had written a glowing assessment of Kerry back in Vietnam signed an affidavit attacking him, then sort of retracted that in a newspaper interview, and then apparently retracted the retraction.

Now I say people are angry because we have gotten a number of e-mails, starting the day the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth began their campaign, accusing us of all sorts of bias and worse for not investigating their claims. Whatever happened to patience? We wanted to investigate, but that takes a little time, but these days, unless there is some sort of instant response, it's clearly evidence of a conspiracy, or bias, or worse. Not sure what the "worse" is, but it seemed like a good way to end the sentence. I am increasingly convinced that we have lost something important in this country, and that's the capacity for honest disagreement. These days it's not enough that you have to prove the other person is wrong, you have to attack them and prove that they are a bad person for being wrong.

In any case, we're going to take a look at all this tonight. Correspondent Jake Tapper will take a look at the dispute, the dueling groups of swift boat veterans, and the political connections on both sides. He'll also try to sort out the accuracy of the claims on both sides, although, as I said above, I don't expect that to satisfy anyone. And I don't say that with any happiness. Correspondent Mike Cerre, himself a veteran of Vietnam, will look at the split within the Vietnam veteran community as a whole. And does this dispute matter to other voters?

Michel Martin will anchor tonight. Will we answer people's questions about this? That's certainly our intention. Will we bring back civility to this debate, or any other? I'm not that naïve.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Nightline Offices
ABC News Washington Bureau

[napi21]

1. Interesting. I'll have to watch. n/t

[Eurobabe]

2. I think it's more like no one trusts anyone

anymore, because for the past fucking almost four years, that trust has been abused on a daily basis!

[MrBenchley]

3. Unfit For Publication

Interestingly, now that the spotlight is on these idiots' claims, Regnery has yanked the book that details this crap OFF ITS WEBSITE...

http://www.regnery.com/index.html

[emulatorloo]

4. Good Catch - it is completely gone. . .

I would love to know the details behind this.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Let me guess.

If I were to say I had eggs for breakfast this morning, and Larry Thurlow were to say I had oatmeal, Nightline would report that there is 'no way to tell who is telling the truth'.

:eyes:

[BrewerJohn]

6. Unacceptable

They are trying to portray this as an honest disagreement? As if these swift boat liars could stand up under more than a glance?

The show should be titled "Anatomy of a Smear"

[buycitgo]

7. Perfect title!......there's a very good thread on this

dunno if here or the GD campaign thread, but it has emails written to ABC, questioning their entire PREMISE

IE, allowing equal time for those arguing that chickens have LIPS instead of beaks

or that phlogisten causes fire

[buycitgo]

8. other thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=603564&mesg_id=603564