Fair and Balanced?

"Reasoning against prejudice is like fighting against a shadow; it exhausts the reasoner, without visibly affecting the prejudice."

     - Charles Mildmay

Neal Boortz is usually a little too "over the top" for me, but his "War Stories" column at Townhall.com contains some excellent points about how major media has treated the questioning of Kerry's military record compared to how they covered that of the president:

"...earlier this year. George Bush was asking the voters of this country to reelect him on the basis of his previous four years as president and commander in chief. Suddenly Democratic detractors come forward with questions about Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard over 30 years ago...Reporters wanted details--all of the details--of Bush's National Guard service. They wanted pay records, dental records, medical records, flight records and statement's from fellow guardsmen confirming Bush's participation."

Boortz scrolls forward to the present day with some observations about how these same journalists are handling the claims about Kerry that are being made by "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth":

"A group of Vietnam veterans step forward with some questions and charges about John Kerry's record of service in Vietnam, the very record that John has presented to the American people as the sole and exclusive reason (save for their hatred of George Bush) that he should be the 44th President of the United States. If the media's treatment of the George Bush AWOL charges were a guide, we would expect to see an immediate feeding frenzy from the mainstream media...it hasn't happened..."

Mr. Boortz concludes with a few questions and comments about Kerry's detractors and some of the people whose goal is to take Bush down:

"One columnist referred to a Houston housebuilder who had made a donation to the Swift Boat Veterans as a 'mysterious Republican moneyman.' Mysterious? A Texas homebuilder is mysterious? I think a Hungarian financier who finances Moveon.org and The Media Fund, both Kerry surrogates, might qualify as mysterious, but has anyone seen dark hints about the money behind these organizations?"

One thing that has been interesting to me is the contrast in how much air time major media has provided the detractors, whether they be anti-Bush or anti-Kerry. People like Richard Clark, Joe Wilson, Paul O'Neill, Michael Moore and George Soros, to name a few, were on our television screens almost constantly when they were making their claims about Bush in their books, movies and ads. I've seen only very minimal air time given to any of the Swift Boat Veterans for truth. Why is that I wonder? Maybe Boortz is onto something here.