Home

 

A Sensitive Issue

The Media’s Desertion from Responsible Reporting

 

John Kerry said the phrase “sensitive war.”

 

I know this because the media reported Dick Cheney repeating this phrase (and attributing his own meaning to it) and Kerry’s citation of many other times the Bush administration uttered the word “sensitive.”

 

While I fault Kerry for not being more bold by properly explaining what he meant, I fear that the coverage of this nonevent showcases the profound ineptitude of the media in two areas. One is the obvious stenographer-like quality of the media, simply repeating precisely what the Bush Administration says regardless of its veracity. The other less addressed matter is the fact that Kerry is on the stump addressing crowds every day, yet the media continually reports that the American people do not know much about Kerry or what Kerry stands for.

 

Ignoring Kerry’s Message – Favoring Sensationalism over Substance

 

Kerry’s “sensitive war” statement occurred on August 5^th before a group called Unity 2004. With no responsible media person properly analyzing Kerry’s speech in its entirety, I set out to review the speech in full – all 9,078 words of the total transcript from the event. What I discovered was certainly in contrast to what I generally hear from the media about voters not hearing specifics on Kerry’s plan for his administration.

 

Among other things, in this speech Kerry addressed the following topics:

 

• That a key to the victory in the war on terror is that the media needs to be truth tellers, not partisan, so we can transfer the power of our ideas, principles and values to the world;
• That a truthful media is critical to creating an informed public to make the right decisions, and correct the wrong ones;
• He favors rolling back the tax cut for those making more than $200,000 to invest in education and health care;
• He announced that his plan is detailed in a 263 page book called “America: Stronger At Home, Respected in the World”, available on the internet at www.johnkerry.com/plan/;
• He supports a plan to protect our ports, secure our chemical and nuclear power plants, and support our police officers;
• He vowed to end tax breaks that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas;
• He supports tax breaks to the middle and lower class which will result in 98% of Americans paying less taxes under a Kerry administration;
• He supports creating a manufacturing incentive and science and technology and research and development incentive to keep jobs in America;
• He plans on fully funding Head Start, Early Start, and Smart Start;
• He favors making health care affordable and accessible for all Americans, because it is a right - not a privilege. By lowering premiums by $1,000 per family, businesses will be more competitive because they won’t pay as much for employee insurance;
• He will send Congress a reform bill that lets immigrants earn legalization and encourages family reunification, while protecting our borders in ways that are fairer and more effective;
• He will restore respect for tribal sovereignty and appoint Native Americans to key positions. He supports and practices affirmative action;
• He will bring diversity to the media, but appointing FCC commissioners committed to enforcing equal employment and ensuring that minority-owned broadcasters are not consolidated;
• He is strong on violence because he believes in holding criminals accountable. At the same time we should provide alternatives to a life of crime through job training, job opportunities, drug treatment, after-school programs, etc.; and
• Regarding Iraq – he supports an international conference to discuss all issues; a high commissioner with responsibility for management and decision-making so it’s not an American effort; sharing decision-making and responsibility, and working with other countries to make us safer is a sign of strength, not weakness.

 

Were these themes covered in any newspaper or news broadcast? What was covered ad nauseum was that fact that Kerry said the two words “sensitive war.” Shame on the media for only highlighting Kerry when he is the subject of an GOP attack, yet simultaneously perpetuate the perception that Kerry’s message is not getting out to the people. If we had a thoughtful and responsible media, these issues would be at the forefront of media matters. But, I suppose it’s a better “story” to label Kerry as ambiguous and continually report on that rather than correcting it.

 

There is no gravity, says Cheney. Opinions differ

 

Aside from focusing on the sensational rather than the substance of Kerry’s speech, the other troubling failure is that the media falls down when covering dishonest statements from the Bush Administration. Cheney’s remarks equated Kerry’s “sensitive war” with being sensitive to terrorists. Rather than taking the time to read Kerry’s remarks in context and correcting the mischaracterization, CNN and others assume their stenographer roles and simply document what Cheney said. Rather than correct the error, CNN again makes the lethargic choice of getting a rebuttal statement from the Kerry camp to address the issue.

 

Not every issue is just a simple disagreement. By offering content limited to quotes from Cheney and quotes from the Kerry campaign, CNN minimizes the debate to a he-said-she-said spat thus giving the impression that opinions differ over a valid issue. This is not an arguable issue. Cheney was inherently wrong in his interpretation and must be called on it. There is nothing wrong with CNN reporting what Cheney said, following up with “in fact, Cheney’s interpretation is incorrect because Kerry was referring to being more sensitive to our allies and not our enemies.” (such responsible reporting should also be applied in other areas such as the “I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it” smear). The media should not be afraid of reporting facts.

 

Kerry’s Own Words

 

I’m providing the context of Kerry’s “sensitive war” phrase:

 

 

The first part [of my book] focuses on security. I will fight this war on terror with the lessons I learned in war. I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president of the United States. I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history. I lay out a strategy to strengthen our military, to build and lead strong alliances and reform our intelligence system. I set out a path to win the peace in Iraq and to get the terrorists wherever they may be before they get us. . . .

 

I come to the job of commander in chief with the rare -- gratefully -- but important experience of having fought in a war. And the war that I fought in was a war where we saw America lose its support for the war, where the soldiers came back having had to do what our soldiers are doing today -- carry an M-16 in another country, try to tell the difference between friend and foe. I know what it's like to go out on night -- on patrol and you don't know what's around the next corner. I know what it's like to write home to your family and tell them, "Hey, everything's okay," even though in you gut you're scared stiff and you don't know if it is okay. . . .

 

[H]ere were are, several years later, having made an end-run around the United Nations, alienated our allies, put our soldiers at greater risk than they needed to be; asked the American people to pay almost $200 billion because we didn't have the patience, we didn't have the maturity to exhaust the remedies available to us and truly build that coalition and understand the nature of the threat.

 

When you read what Kerry said in context, are you offended? His speech is replete with statements of strong security and fighting for our interests. Yet, it must just be a better media story to create the perception that Kerry is a weak Democrat while Bush is a strong Republican.

 

It’s very ironic that a theme of Kerry’s speech was that one role of the media is to advance truth to further an informed public yet the media failed to report either the substance of his speech or to point out the dishonesty of Cheney’s attacks.

 

Lance Manion

[email protected]

Chicago, IL