Thursday, September 09, 2004

Bush Exposed I have been reluctant to spend too much time on the latest release of info on Bush's military record-- or lack thereof, it appears -- because I think both candidates have used the Vietnam issue to get out of having clear, substantive exchanges about domestic policy and Iraq. Nevertheless, some journalists have been on the ball, uncovering older records previously ignored that reveal that Bush's National Guard duty is spottier than we've been told. The Boston Globe ran a convincing expose Wednesday. It starts: In February, when the White House made public hundreds of pages of President Bush's military records, White House officials repeatedly insisted that the records prove that Bush fulfilled his military commitment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. But Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows: Twice during his Guard service -- first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty. He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show. The 1973 document has been overlooked in news media accounts. The 1968 document has received scant notice.   Having the documents, of course, helps nail it.  When journalism works, it really works. The downside is that this is work that journalists across the country should have been doing earlier. Nevertheless, several seem to be making up for lost time, as this Editor and Publisher account of several recent exposes notes.   11:18:54 AM     comment []

News From Different Views It's not that journalists ignore articles about how big money  buys government and gets policies that favor corporate interests.  Sometimes, major news gets covered by the wire services and other organizations, but the news doesn't spread to other publications, or when it does, it gets buried deep in the paper. This story about Arnold Schwarzenegger getting bought off by Chevron Texaco Corp., which has managed to get restrictions on oil refineries revoked, was covered by the mainstream; however, I only learned about this breach of public trust when I got one of my regular news alerts from Corpwatch.org, which is cocnerned with greater corporate accountability. A link led me to the Associated Press article on the subject. The lesson here? Expand your news sources to include newsletters and advocacy groups on the Internet. It doesn't matter whether you agree with the group's views; seeing what the other side is up to is just as important as knowing what the link-minded are doin --maybe more so.     10:52:53 AM     comment []

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