QandO

August 20, 2004

Bloggers keep story alive
Posted by McQ

As mentioned yesterday in the Estrich piece where she blames talk radio for keeping the Kerry Vietnam service flap alive, I think bloggers have had as big a hand, if not a bigger hand than talk radio, in keeping this story visible. Debora Orin of the NY Post agrees:

The other fascinating part of this story is the key role that bloggers on the Internet have played in pointing out the holes in Kerry's story — even as much of the press tries to ignore them.

For instance, when Team Kerry held a press conference featuring his crewmates this week, one was conspicuously missing — David Alston — after the Internet-fueled revelation that he may have only served on Kerry's boat for one week.

A Web blogger, captainsquartersblog, began questioning whether Alston (who has spoken emotionally about how they "bled together") ever served with Kerry. National Review examined the records and concluded maybe — for just one week.

This whole story could be a test of the Internet's impact in this campaign. While most papers have been ignoring the story — until Kerry went ballistic at the Swift vets yesterday — bloggers have been examining it in detail.

On Web sites like Instapundit.com, captainsquartersblog.com, hugh- hewitt.com and rogerlsimon.com, skeptical veterans are trading details on Kerry's service and raising intricate questions about his veracity based on their own experience.

Their online dialogue is punctuated with questions about why the "mainstream media" have been mostly ignoring this story — and why the 13 pro-Kerry vets are automatically assumed to have more credibility than 264 anti-Kerry vets.

This points to the sea change the internet, generally, and blogging specifically have brought to the political process. Much like the invention of moveable type put the bible in the hands of common men and allowed them to make their own interpretations of it, the internet has allowed the common man the same resources and voice as the main stream media. Just as priests lost their exclusive right to interpret the bible, the MSM has lost its exclusive voice as to what is and isn't news.

In several instances, it is bloggers who've forced the issue on the main stream media. Trent Lott comes to mind. And now the questions about Kerry. But questions about why the main stream media has done its level best to avoid this story still abound.

Just imagine the coverage if 264 vets who served with Bush in the Texas Air National Guard made similar charges. For those bloggers, this story has become a test of the mainstream media's credibility — and its liberal anti-Bush bias.

Given the rectal exam Bush's guard records received from the MSM I'd say this is a test of the MSMs credibility. Will they acknowledge it and react accordingly or will they be dragged kicking and screaming into the investigation?

Or will they, instead, continue to ignore the story and the 200+ credible witnesses to Kerry's service?

If they choose the latter, they do so at their own risk.

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