Editorial License at the Washington Times
Wesley Pruden might benefit from taking a refresher course in accurate reporting. If it were left to me, I’d just rap his knuckles with a ruler and stand him in the corner for awhile.

The Washington Times published an article today by Mr. Pruden, its Editor in Chief, in which he selectively quoted John Kerry’s 1971 Senate committee testimony on Vietnam atrocities. Kerry’s words, from today’s article:

"They ... raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power," he told a Senate committee in 1971 when he was just home from the war, and "cut off limbs, [blew] up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."

As we know, the purposeful excision (or insertion) of only a few words can significantly transform a message. This is one of the most blatant examples of editorial artwork I have seen in quite some time. Herewith, text from the relevant section of Kerry’s testimony:

“I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit - the emotions in the room and the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do.”

“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.”

Mr. Pruden then appeared on CSPAN’s Washington Journal. He was unrepentant, even when a viewer called in to point out the discrepancy.

Perhaps the Times was hurting for space today and really had to cut back the length of the article. If that were the case, then I would have suggested they include the relatively few words that were deleted, and correct the phrase “blew up bodies”. Ditching the remarks in the article speculating on the Senator's rumored botox treatments would have provided more than enough room.

John Kerry is entitled to his opinions, both then and now, whether we agree with him or not, and the public is entitled to more professionalism from a major newspaper.

Read the Pruden article, then read Kerry’s words. You decide.

CLICK TODAY'S ARTICLE TITLE FOR THE LINKS PAGE
- posted by SemiPundit @ 3:33 PM

 
Aftermath
"And when the towers did come down, they brought with them 400,000 tons of structural steel, 208 passenger elevators, 46,600 windows, 220 acres' worth of reinforced concrete flooring, 6 acres of marble, 49,000 tons of air conditioning equipment, 12,000 miles of electrical cable, 23,000 fluorescent light bulbs, 198 miles of heating ducts, 300 computer mainframes, and the accumulated materials of...American capitalism compacted into...an astounding three-dimensional Jackson Pollack-like dystopia of ash-covered wreckage that smoldered and burned literally for months."
---Richard Bernstein in Out of the Blue (Time Books, page 234)

CLICK TODAY'S ARTICLE TITLE FOR THE LINKS PAGE
- posted by SemiPundit @ 10:06 PM

 
George Soros Speaks for Himself
George Soros, the wealthy investor, has been criticized for his financial support of MoveOn.org, and other "liberal" causes. Now, there's something we really should do something about--billionaires getting involved in politics.

Here is an article recently published in the Atlantic which says a lot about where he is coming from.

CLICK TODAY'S ARTICLE TITLE FOR THE LINKS PAGE
- posted by SemiPundit @ 11:46 PM