THE PRESS CORPS STILL LOVES THOSE ACCUSERS (PART 3)! John O’Neill’s gang can’t seem to shoot straight. Why won’t the press corps confront them? // link //
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2004
MAKING MERRIE: Finally! Merrie Spaeth, spokeswoman for the Swift Boat Vets, finally appeared on cable last night, showing up in Scarborough Country. Quickly, Joe got right in her face. Was she behind those nasty ads that hammered McCain in South Carolina?
SCARBOROUGH (8/24/04): The New York Times says that you've been involved with the Swift Boat Vets. The New York Times also said that you were the spokesperson for that fringe veteran group that also smeared John McCain
. Is that true?
At last, a chance to get the facts! And Spaeth was happy to tell the world that she hadn’t pushed those ads. In fact, the whole thing was just a big puzzle:
SPAETH (continuing directly): No, absolutely, positively not. I run a corporate firm. We've been in business for 17 years. I am—I'm astounded that they would say things like that and even more astounded that journalists wouldn't take the time to go check it out.
Merrie was astounded by the whole thing! As always, Joe pretended that he was trying to get the “real deal.” Just watch the way he keeps on digging:
SCARBOROUGH (continuing directly): What's the real story, then?
SPAETH: Well, you have to go ask the people who put on the ads in South Carolina. The guy who put on the ads in New York has come forward, sent a letter to the Times, and tried to clarify the record. But the idea that the Kerry campaign can repeat things that aren't true, it’s very disturbing to me.
SCARBOROUGH: Did you have no connection with the McCain ads in South Carolina in 2000?
SPAETH: None. None! Zero! What's lower than zero? Nothing.
SCARBOROUGH: You didn't act as a spokesperson for one day, for one minute, for one second?
SPAETH: No. No!
Phew! With one unexplained reference to “the ads in New York,” Spaeth played pious victim.
The real victims, of course, were Scarborough’s viewers, who he and Spaeth were playing for fools. As he grilled Merrie, Joe showed the chart about Bush-Swift Boat ties, the chart from last Friday’s New York Times. And he had Merrie’s name gaily circled. But what had the Times report really said about Spaeth? Do you mind if we quote the actual real deal? It was written by Kate Zernike:
ZERNIKE (8/20/04): In 2000, Ms. Spaeth was spokeswoman for a group that ran $2 million worth of ads attacking Senator John McCain's environmental record and lauding Mr. Bush's in crucial states during their fierce primary battle. The group, calling itself Republicans for Clean Air, was founded by a prominent Texas supporter of Mr. Bush, Sam Wyly.
The Times didn’t say squat about “fringe veterans” or South Carolina. (Wyly’s phony ads about McCain ran in later, northern primaries.) But then, the Times’s Elisabeth Bumiller said the same thing in yesterday’s paper, before Joe ran his fake interview:
BUMILLER (8/24/04): Mr. Perry has donated $200,000 to the Swift boat group, records show, and Merrie Spaeth, a Republican strategist who has been advising the Swift boat group, was a spokeswoman for Sam Wyly's advertising campaign in 2000.
Again, nothing about fringe vets or South Carolina. But so what! Joe and Merrie both played it dumb, pretending that they couldn’t imagine what the Times was doing—and trashing “the Kerry campaign” for its lies. Readers, if you like to be played for a total fool, just cross into Scarborough Country.
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