Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Covering Kitty

Nick Confessore may be a bit more generous to the mainstream media on this than many liberal bloggers are inclined to be.  After seeing the shameless way our sad excuse for a press corps helped the Republicans promote the dishonest, sleazy claims of the Swift Boat Liars for Bush, it's hard to avoid taking a little guilty pleasure in seeing Bush embarassed by the same media pathology, at least for a moment.

Right now, though, I'm with Confessore on this: How to Cover Kitty Kelley's Book TAPPED 09/08/04.  He makes some good points about the fact that the book is published by Random House.  That is a reputable publisher, although he reminds us that even the most quality publishers are "laissez-faire about fact-checking" compared to journalists.  And given how obviously sloppy mainstream journalists have become about fact-checking in a case like the Swift Boat Liars, that's a real reminder of the need for critical reading and thinking.

In the process, he notes that the publisher of the Swift Boat Liars' book on Kerry is Regnery Publishing, "essentially a partisan press with a well-documented history of publishing salacious and fraudulent books about Democrats and liberals."  And even that may be a tad generous to Regnery's level of quality.  Regnery is our guy Chuckie's publisher, as well.

All that said, however, I'm really disappointed in the eagerness with which reputable news organizations are preparing to give Kelley prime-time interviews to air her allegations. She doesn't deserve the presumption of credibility. Kelley's past books have included tidbits that were vigorously challenged by the subjects and other news organizations. She's a known purveyor of gossip. One of her sources on the drug allegations, Sharon Bush, has every incentive to manufacture stories about the president, since the president's brother Neil Bush cheated on her with prostitutes and then divorced her.

On the whole, what's happening with Kelley is very similar to what happened with the Swift Boat liars. She is being given air time and column inches in which to air explosive accusations that the news organizations have been unable to independently verify. It's not enough to challenge her during interviews and ask tough questions. When the accusations are this serious, even broaching them permanently damages the subject and leaves viewers and readers with a sense that there must be some truth to them -- why else would the press be covering it?

But we also know that the mainstream press isn't going to reform their lazy, trivia-obssessed, scandal-driven ways overnight.  So it's hard to resist making a point that our American press corps is much more willing to flog baseless accusations against Bush's opponents and critics than they are to analyze what Bush is doing.  Which is what Hesiod does with some bitter irony in this 09/07/04 post.  So does Atrios, though without much of the irony part.

The press' generally irresonponsible role in helping the administration hype the invasion of Iraq is the most disgusting example of their recent failures.  And it's a real reminder that the press falling down on its role in a democracy can have consequences that go far beyond a party's fortunes in a particular election.

Tom Tomorrow also gives a clever characterization of Regnery Publishing's standards of quality in The Republican Conventioneer's Guide to New York City 08/31/04.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Washington Post has a story on this where the VP from Random House claims: 'the publisher's chief counsel and Kelley's own lawyer went over the book "with a fine-toothed comb."'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3665-2004Sep7?language=printer

Anonymous said...

Cherie, I don't think there's any question that this is better sourced than the Swift Boat Liars book.  That book relied mostly on claims by non-witnesses.  On Kerry's side, there was far better information from numerous witnesses to the events in question, and the contemporary military records also backed up his story.

I haven't actually paid enough attention to the details of these claims to know how well sourced they are.  I actually don't think these kinds of stories -  embarassing as they may be to the individuals involved - really affect voters' opinions to any notable extent.

No one really cared about Clinton's (mostly alleged) affairs except partisan Republicans who wouldn't have voted for him anyway.  No one cares if Bush did recreational drugs years ago, though Democratic partisans can hardly help snickering over such claims.

Bush's issues around his Air Guard service are a different matter, though, not least because of Bush's own posturing.  He got pilot training at a cost to the Guard of about $1 million.  Then he didn't show up for his physical and so couldn't fly for the rest of his time in the Guard for apparently frivolous reasons (at best).

People that hear that will be immediately reminded of his ridiculous dress-up stunt on "Mission Accomplished" day on the USS Abraham Lincoln.  And by blasting Kerry's Vietnam combat service, Bush's campaign has made Bush's own conduct during those days a very obvious issue.  It hurts him by reinforcing an all-too-accurate image of him today as frivolous.

I think that dress-up stunt would be inappropriate even for a president who was a genuine war hero.  Having the civilian head of government appear in public in a military uniform is like something from a tinhorn Latin American dictatorship in the 1970s.  I'll have to look up one of these days whether other presidents (like General Andrew Jackson!) ever did that.  I don'

Anonymous said...

Bushie is frivolous but I agree with you that Kelly is not a good source.  

That Happy Chica,
Marcia Ellen