Tue, Sep 21, 2004 11:01am ET

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FOX's "Campaign" Carl Cameron tried to spin Kerry speech, falsely claimed Kerry called Bush a "warmonger"

FOX News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron misrepresented Senator John Kerry's September 20 speech on Iraq at New York University. In reporting the speech, Cameron claimed that Kerry called President George W. Bush a "warmonger" who wants "a perpetual state of war." But Kerry never said those things.

From the September 20 edition of FOX News Channel's Studio B with Shepard Smith:

CAMERON: This is a very bold attack from Senator Kerry today. He basically said today that if President Bush is reelected, there will be more war, and he will continue to make these mistakes that Senator Kerry says he's made in the Iraq war, and he suggested there will be continued wars elsewhere on the planet. In effect, saying -- John Kerry accusing George W. Bush of being a warmonger who wants a perpetual state of war around the world. Big stuff.

Cameron overstated Kerry's comments and exaggerated his statements about Bush. At no point did Kerry call Bush a "warmonger," nor did he "basically" say that Bush "wants a perpetual state of war around the world." Rather, Kerry argued that "[i]f George W. Bush is re-elected, he will cling to the same failed policies in Iraq -- and he will repeat, somewhere else, the same reckless mistakes that have made America less secure than we can or should be." Kerry added: "The president's insistence that he would do the same thing all over again in Iraq is a clear warning for the future, and it makes the choice in this election clear: more of the same with President Bush or a new, smarter direction with John Kerry that makes our troops and America safer."

—J.C. & N.C.

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