Reply #4: Boston Globe reporter used blogs to attack Kerry, support Bush during '04 [View All]

[dzika]

Tuesday March 1, 2005

Boston Globe reporter used blogs to attack Kerry, support Bush during '04 campaign

While reporting on the 2004 presidential campaign for The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray apparently wrote posts for several weblogs in which he declared his support for President Bush, attacked Sen. John Kerry, and bolstered discredited allegations by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth).

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On August 26, 2004, two weeks after he reported on the hacking of websites selling Unfit for Command, Bray apparently posted a comment to an entry on Dan Gillmor's eJournal, a weblog hosted by SiliconValley.com, a technology news website operated by the San Jose Mercury News. Bray's post attacked Sen. Kerry's "moronic strategy" of publicly discussing his service in Vietnam and bolstered the allegations of discredited Swift Boat Vets' attacks:

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On September 24, 2004, Bray apparently posted a comment to a conservative blog, A Small Victory, praising an anti-Kerry screed by the blog's author titled "Kerry's Exploding Fuel Tank," which predicted: "As the Kerry campaign goes down in flames, with it will the hopes and dreams of a million desperate people holding 'Bush is Hitler' signs. But they knew what they were getting into. I say, let them crash." Bray responded favorably: "Love the closing reference to one of the funniest moments in the movie Airplane -- 'They knew what they were getting into when they got aboard. I say, let 'em crash!' Loved that!"

On November 4, 2004, Bray apparently posted a message to the moderated electronic mailing list Interesting-People.org. He wrote: "As a Bush supporter, I'm feeling pretty good right now, so maybe I can't quite appreciate some of the bitter commentary I'm reading here." Later in the same e-mail, he delivered a message to those who voted for Kerry:

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The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times Company, whose ethics handbook, Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments, lays out specific guidelines for the political behavior of its journalists, such as: "Journalists have no place on the playing fields of politics. Staff members are entitled to vote, but they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation."


Contacts:

Hiawatha Bray
[e-mail]

Boston Globe
[e-mail]
617-929-2000

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