Globe: In Kerry veepstakes, Clark is the wild card

[Thrill]

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/05/18/in_kerry_veepstakes_clark_is_the_wild_card/

[robbedvoter]

1. Still hanging to the Drudge story I see...

Some DU-ers will now re-embrace Drudhe (like they did when he smeared Clark the same day/subject as RNC). But for all the BS,

which in itself demolishes the rumor. ta-ta!

[FrenchieCat]

2. Letter I wrote to the Globe

About this.....
Link to my blog to provide information required to send your own letter....if you so wish:
http://frenchiecat.forclark.com/story/2004/5/18/134226/345

Dear Peter S. Canellos,

I read your article titled, "in Kerry veepstakes, Clark is the wild card" http://tinyurl.com/2lmfy, and found it interesting and somewhat insightful until I read your following opinion lines, "Then the last days of his campaign, Clark reportedly told a few reporters he was hanging on because he heard Kerry might be exposed as having had an affair with an intern. The affair never materialized, but Clark may have revealed a problem of his own, not being able to keep his mouth shut", and "he showed his worst colors in dealing with Kerry, beginning when he tried to pull rank in New Hampshire by pointing out that he was a general and Kerry merely a lieutenant."

First, I am utterly dismayed that you could repeat the Drudge originated rumor without any substantiation and write it as fact. It is truly appalling that, as a journalist, you allow yourself to make unproven and inaccurate negative character assessment (Clark revealed that he is unable to keep his mouth shut) of one of the greatest patriots of our nation based on unfounded second hand discredited heresy.

Second, the General vs. the Lieutenant line originated via Senator Dole who chided General Clark on CNN the night of the Iowa returns, calling Clark a loser who was really the Lieutenant of politics while John Kerry was the General. Surprised by the sarcastic and somewhat offensive "I was just kidding (wink-wink, nod-nod)" Dole comment, General Clark, who had not even contested Iowa, laughingly replied with the statement that he was the General and Kerry was the Lieutenant, a correct assertion based on fact (Hel-lo?) The Press corp., always scraping for whatever train wreck they can eek out, took this factual statement, left out the context and Senator Dole's participation and ruthlessly ran with it, distorting it on the way.

I am becoming very much discouraged at the level of rumor mongering that goes on within this nation's press corp. I had heard rumblings that the profession of mainstream journalism had sunk to Enquirer swamp creature journalistic status, but did not want to believe it. However, it pains me to say, you have provided me with ample confirmation that it is so.

Below, please find well attributed rebukes for the "Clark said this about Kerry" rumor currently being spread like wildfire by unethical or "why should I research?" writers. Your article was almost a good read, but the insertion of falsehoods and misleading reporting leads me to believe that General Clark is still going through "harsh media vetting" of the lowest sort.

My bottomline questions to you are, why are you ignoring the documented first hand denials of the rumor and spreading the it yourself? Why are you leaving out the context of General Clark's General vs. Lieutenant comment? What is your motivation, and what is the goal? Unless I get a reasonable response from you, I will find it impossible to believe anything that you write in the future. As of today, you have definitely lost this reader's faith.

Respectfully for now,

http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/000543.asp

Fact Check
May 14, 2004
In the Dark on Wesley Clark

In a piece today that looks at several of John Kerry's choices for a running-mate, Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press writes, " Clark's standing also is not helped by Kerry advisers' belief that the former general helped spread rumors that Kerry had had an affair with a young woman."

But as the New Republic's Ryan Lizza -- who was in the room when Clark made the comments in question - pointed out three months ago, there just isn't anything to the Drudge Report-fueled notion that Clark floated the rumor about Kerry having an affair. Inspired by Pickler's piece, Lizza, writing today on his New Republic blog, again affirms Clark's innocence.

Pickler's phrasing may technically be accurate: Some Kerry advisers (those who don't read the New Republic, perhaps) may continue to believe that Clark helped spread the rumor. But given that it appears he didn't, is it too much to ask of the AP to point that out?

--Z.R.


http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=1655

"Maybe Kerry's aides have additional evidence of Clark spreading the rumors about an affair, but as far as I know it's a false accusation. I believe the birth of this story is a bizarre press conference Clark had at a deli in Nashville on the day of the February 10 Tennessee primary. I was there that day, as were at least a dozen other reporters, and the whole thing was captured on video by more than one person. What happened was that reporters were dogging Clark with questions about when he was going to drop out of the race. He didn't quite snap, but Clark got a little frustrated and made some terse comments about why he was staying in. Then he told us that what he had just said was off the record. It's a close call as to whether any of us there have a responsibility to treat his comments as such, but I'm not breaking any rules by reporting that Clark did not spread any rumor about Kerry and a young woman. I've previously checked with other reporters who were there, and they have confirmed this. If I'm wrong, the videotape is out there somewhere."

And Cece Connolly on Fox disavowed the rumor as well:

This little bit of a transcript from Ceci Connolly on Fox News on 5/15/04 :

JUAN WILLIAMS: Now, let me just say that Democrats, including the man who endorsed this week, General Wesley Clark, was overheard saying, "Oh, you know, Kerry's campaign is going to implode over an intern," that kind of thing. That adds to it. And I think--

CONNOLLY: You know, what, though? That's not accurate. That's not accurate. That's the way that Drudge reported that supposed off-the-record conversation. But I've spoken to reporters who were there, and that's not even what General Clark accused. It was something far more peripheral, and it was pinned to a tabloid.

THE INFORMATION ABOVE WAS GENERATED ON 5/14 AND 5/15....THE BELOW INFORMATION WAS GENERATED SHORTLY AFTER THE RUMOR OF THE RUMOR WAS STARTED. A RUMOR THAT EVEN DRUDGE REMOVED FROM HIS WEBSITE THE SAME DAY THE PUBLISHED IT.


The Campaign Desk, a Project of the Columbia Journalism Review at Columbia Graduate School School of Journalism, had investigated the matter and had written about it back in February....when the rumor of the rumor made it to the pages of Newsweek CW.
http://www.cjr.org/blog/archives/cat_fact_check.asp#000194

Ryan Lissa, of the New Republic, who was present, published the following report a short time after the alleged incident that gave life to the rumor of the rumor:
http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=1337

Nick Confessore comments:
http://www.prospect.org/weblog/

Amy Sullivan (Political Aims) comments,
http://www.politicalaims.com/

and
Joe Conason (Salon) also wrote a de-bunking of the Drudge rumor, including background information as to his motivation and goal:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/02/13/drudge/index_np.html

[democratreformed]

3. Perhaps you could go post this in the following thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=529075&mesg_id=529075

where another DUer keeps vehemently stating that the rumor came from Cameron Barrett.

[Adelante]

4. CampaignDesk.org 5/18/04 Debunk

Echo Chamber
The Drudge Report: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Back in February, Matt Drudge wrote an undocumented story claiming that one of John Kerry's interns had fled the country at the candidate's request, just as Kerry was fighting off a "media probe of recent alleged infidelity." In the piece, Drudge claimed that Wesley Clark had told a group of reporters that "Kerry will implode over an intern issue" in an off-the-record conversation.

The Kerry intern story turned out to be bogus, as did the claim that Clark had spread the rumor. As Campaign Desk noted at the time (and has written about subsequently as well), The New Republic's Ryan Lizza and reporters we spoke to on background who were present for the comments all confirm that Clark never said anything about an intern during the conversation in question. The retired general did say he believed there was a story coming out that might damage Kerry, but, according to one reporter, he didn't seem to have any idea what it might be.

Thankfully, the rumor about Kerry's infidelity seems to have faded into the ether. But, maddeningly, the claim that Clark spread the rumor has endured. An alert reader emailed us today about a Boston Globe piece by Peter Canellos containing the following paragraph:

"Then the last days of his campaign, Clark reportedly told a few reporters he was hanging on because he heard Kerry might be exposed as having had an affair with an intern. The affair never materialized, but Clark may have revealed a problem of his own, not being able to keep his mouth shut."

The irony here is that Clark did show, in the episode, that he sometimes says things he probably shouldn't. He just didn't say what Drudge, and subsequently Newsweek, the Associated Press, and, now, The Boston Globe, say he did. The rest of Canellos' story is excellent, and far from a hit piece: It concludes with the statement that "Kerry could do far worse" than selecting Clark as his running mate. It's just too bad he didn't bother to check up on the validity of a claim that's been debunked many times -- and that originated with a source who pegs his own accuracy rate (generously) at 80 percent.

--Brian Montopoli

Columbia Journalism Review, Campaign Desk, May 18 2004

[grannyfran]

5. Why is Clark targeted?

Of all the people being discussed for Veep, why is Clark the only one who gets singled out for attacks from the press? It's deja vu all over again! I smell Rove all over the "Kerry/Clark/intern" fiasco. There's no other reason for beating this dead horse of an issue. If Kerry wants Clark for his VP, this bullshit isn't going to make any difference.

[Adelante]

6. Not me, I smell other Democrats

Just like the first time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=529075&mesg_id=529550&page=