On at least 15 occasions on May 8, Fox News promoted notion that McCain is reluctant to discuss his POW experience
SUMMARY: On numerous May 8 programs, Fox News anchors and reporters promoted the notion that Sen. John McCain is reluctant to discuss his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, McCain has repeatedly highlighted that experience.
On May 8, Fox News anchors and reporters repeatedly promoted the notion that Sen. John McCain is reluctant to discuss his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, making such assertions at least 15 times between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET. During Special Report, while introducing chief political correspondent Carl Cameron's interview with retired Col. George E. "Bud" Day, guest anchor Bret Baier asserted that "McCain rarely talks about his experience as a prisoner of war during Vietnam." During the interview, Cafmeron reiterated the claim: "[R]epeating what he went through is something McCain almost never does as a presidential candidate." One hour later, during The Fox Report, anchor Shepard Smith falsely asserted, "One thing McCain has not brought up during the campaign: his days as a prisoner of war in Vietnam." In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, McCain has repeatedly highlighted his experience as a POW, even as he and the media have promoted the notion that he is reluctant to do so.
During the Republican primary, numerous McCain campaign advertisements on television and the Internet noted McCain's time as a POW. One ad, a 60-second spot titled "One Man," begins with 27 seconds of footage of McCain being interrogated during his captivity. Additional footage of McCain in captivity appears while a narrator says, "One man sacrificed for his country." Five other McCain campaign ads released between September 2007 and February 2008 include footage of McCain in captivity, including one ad titled "Tied Up," which showed footage of McCain in Vietnam while audio played of McCain referring to his captivity while attacking Sen. Hillary Clinton during an October 21, 2007, Republican presidential debate.
Additionally, a 12-minute video titled "Courageous Service" and posted on McCain's campaign website also begins with the 27-second clip of McCain being interrogated while being held captive. Later in the video, McCain discussed the circumstances of his capture and subsequent captivity in North Vietnam. The video also includes footage of McCain discussing his captivity during a campaign event.
McCain has also highlighted his POW experience since clinching the Republican nomination. For instance, on March 27, McCain's campaign released its first general election television ad. The ad -- titled "624787," his Navy serial number -- highlights McCain's military experience by airing footage of him as a POW in Vietnam. Soon after, on March 31, McCain began a five-day, six-city "Service to America Tour," during which McCain visited various locations that related to his and his family's military history. The tour was launched in Meridian, Mississippi, "[h]ome of McCain Field named after John McCain's grandfather, an admiral in the U.S. Navy." During his speech in Meridian, McCain recounted his father's service in the Navy and mentioned his own experience as "a prisoner of war in Hanoi":
During the Vietnam War, he commanded all U.S. forces in the Pacific, at the top of a chain of command that included, near the bottom, his son, a naval aviator on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, and later a prisoner of war in Hanoi. My father seldom spoke of my captivity to anyone outside the family, and never in public. He prayed on his knees every night for my safe return. He would spend holidays with the troops in Vietnam, near the DMZ. At the end of his visit, he would walk alone to the base perimeter, and look north toward the city where I was held. Yet, when duty required it, he gave the order for B-52s to bomb Hanoi, in close proximity to my prison. [emphasis added]
During the tour, McCain also visited Jacksonville, Florida, which his campaign described as "[h]ome of John McCain base before his deployment to Vietnam and following his return after 5 years as a POW." During his speech in Jacksonville, McCain again referred to his experience as a prisoner of war:
The quality of persevering for your own sake, for your reputation or your sense of personal honor is good but over valued. Persevering with others for a common goal is not only more satisfying in the end, but teaches you something about life you might not have known before, and can influence your direction in ways your own fortitude never could. I once thought I was man enough for almost any confrontation. In prison, I discovered I was not. I tried to use every personal resource I had to confound my captors, and it wasn't enough in the end. But when I had reached the limit of my endurance, the men I had the honor of serving with picked me up, set me right, and sent me back into the fight. I became dependent on others to a greater extent than I had ever been before. And I am a better man for it. We had met a power that wanted to obliterate our identities, and the cause to which we rallied was our response: we are free men, bound inseparably together, and by the grace of God and not your sufferance we will have our freedom restored to us. I have never felt more powerfully free, more my own man, than when I was a small part of an organized resistance to the power that imprisoned us. [emphasis added]
Additionally, as Media Matters has documented, contrary to McCain's 2004 assertion that he "didn't talk about" his military service during his 2000 presidential campaign, McCain highlighted his experience as a POW in Vietnam in campaign advertisements and on the stump. McCain's 2000 presidential campaign released a biographical video of McCain that prominently featured McCain's time in the Navy during Vietnam. McCain himself appeared in the video and discussed, among other things, his time as a POW. Further, The Boston Globe (accessed via the Nexis database) reported on March 1, 2000, that "John McCain ran a campaign ad about the Christmas sermon he wrote for fellow prisoners of war in North Vietnam 30 years ago." And USA Today noted on January 4, 2000, that McCain ran a television ad featuring Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) "accusing [then-President Bill] Clinton of betraying the military" and "mention[ing] McCain's time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam."
Likewise, a "Campaign 2000 ad watch" item in the February 25, 2000, Los Angeles Times (accessed via Nexis) featured the text of the McCain ad titled "Leader," which highlighted his experience as a POW in Vietnam:
Text: "A young Navy pilot who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, John McCain was shot down over Hanoi. McCain refused early release from prison, where he suffered repeated beatings and was held for 5 1/2 years. He returned home just as devoted to his country, taking on the establishment. (McCain on camera) 'I'll give the government back to you, and I promise you that.' (voice-over) Ready to be president and leader of the free world. John McCain -- character courage -- for president."
Analysis: Media consultants agree no one can beat John McCain's life story as a war hero. McCain was a U.S. Navy pilot shot down on Oct. 26, 1967. Offered early release to embarrass his Navy admiral father, McCain refused and was a POW until March 1973. The ad features grainy black-and-white photographs of McCain in his flight suit, as an imprisoned soldier and lying on a bed bandaged. It alludes to his return to the U.S. and a life of public service. He was elected to the House in 1982 from Arizona and the U.S. Senate in 1986, where he still serves. McCain's "taking on the establishment" refers to his controversial campaign finance reform plan. The plan is a cornerstone of his presidential campaign, attracting supporters as well as critics who say McCain is hypocritical since he has a prolific fund-raising record. [emphasis added]
Other media outlets, including the National Review, The Washington Post, and Time magazine also reported that McCain highlighted his POW experience during the 2000 campaign.
From the 10 a.m. ET hour of the May 8 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
BILL HEMMER (anchor): He was held captive, tortured in Vietnam for five and a half years. It's not something John McCain brings up on the trail. But there is a former war veteran talking. An exclusive one-on-one with the man who shared a cell with McCain in Hanoi. That's coming up.
[...]
HEMMER: It's a part of John McCain' s life story he doesn't talk about much: the five and a half years he was held captive and tortured in a Vietnamese prison. A former cellmate at the Hanoi Hilton, as it is known, is now talking.
[...]
CAMERON: McCain, of course, was shot down and spent a lot of time as a POW, and it's one of the defining moments of his life. But he seldom talks about it in public. Many say it's because, as with so many soldiers, they just think that it's not important and not appropriate to trade on what they've been through.
[...]
CAMERON: John McCain almost never speaks publicly about these sorts of stories. His supporters and Bud Day certainly believe that he should be, so that the American people can get a little bit of an insight as to what this man has been through and what kind of character he would bring into the White House.
From the noon ET hour of the May 8 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:
JANE SKINNER (anchor): On the campaign trail, John McCain doesn't often talk about his time as a prisoner of war. It is quite a story, though. The Arizona senator survived five and a half years of torture and captivity in the notorious Hanoi Hilton, as they called it, during the Vietnam War.
[...]
CAMERON: The military records show that he won 17 medals, accommodations, and awards for his time in Vietnam, both as a fighter -- as a Naval aviator and as a prisoner of war. In the Hanoi Hilton and as part of his shoot-down injuries, he was terribly beaten up and tortured, and those injuries and wounds were even made worse. McCain doesn't like to talk about this stuff, largely because he thinks that it's inappropriate and that the heroism isn't something that should be sort of traded on politically.
From the May 8 edition of Fox News' America's Pulse with E.D. Hill:
E.D. HILL (anchor): In 1967, John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, was captured by the enemy in Vietnam. He was held in a notorious Hanoi prison and tortured repeatedly for five and a half years. Now, he doesn't talk about that experience very often, but his former cellmate at what was known as the Hanoi Hilton is talking.
From the May 8 edition of Fox News' Studio B with Shepard Smith:
SMITH: Well, John McCain doesn't talk about it on the campaign trail, but his heroic actions during his time as a prisoner of war are pretty well-documented.
[...]
CAMERON: This is where Senator McCain actually did his flight training. And not too long after completing it, he was flying sorties in Vietnam and was shot down. McCain almost never talks about what happened to him as a POW, even though it's what -- one of the things that really just sort of defines his character. But Colonel Bud Day, who was also a POW at the Hanoi Hilton and at other camps across South -- North Vietnam, talks about it quite a bit and thinks McCain should be more willing to describe that part of his makeup.
DAY [video clip]: I have never seen any shortcomings or any shortfall out of him talking about that, but he just doesn't -- he doesn't trade on that. I think he feels that it's just wrong to try to trade on being a hero. But he is.
From the May 8 edition of Fox News' America's Election HQ:
MEGYN KELLY (anchor): Well, coming up: John McCain does not talk much about his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, but now a man who actually shared a cell with McCain for two years is speaking out about it. He describes their ordeal. You'll hear it firsthand next.
[...]
KELLY: Well, you know, there are very few people in this world who know exactly what John McCain went through as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. It is not something McCain talks about a whole lot. But apparently McCain was close to death when his former Hanoi Hilton cellmate first laid eyes on him.
From the May 8 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
BAIER: Well, John McCain rarely talks about his experience as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. But one of the men who was held with him says McCain was a leader and an inspiration to other prisoners during a horrendous ordeal, and he says voters should know about that. Chief political correspondent Carl Cameron reports.
[...]
[begin video clip]
DAY: I asked John if he would be my -- one of my preachers. He said, "Sure." So, he had a great handle on the Episcopalian liturgy. He could just repeat it verbatim.
CAMERON: But repeating what he went through is something McCain almost never does as a presidential candidate. Day thinks he should.
DAY: I have never seen any shortcomings or any shortfall out of him talking about that, but he just doesn't -- he doesn't trade on that. I think he feels that it's just wrong to try to trade on being a hero. But he is.
From the May 8 edition of The Fox Report with Shepard Smith:
SMITH: One thing McCain has not brought up during the campaign: his days as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. But now, someone else is bringing it up for him -- a man who shared a Hanoi cell with McCain for two years.
[...]
CAMERON: McCain actually helped Day with injuries, resetting a broken arm and getting his fingers back to working condition after they'd become cramped from torture. Senator McCain doesn't talk about this very much; he doesn't think that he should be trading off of his military history. But a lot of supporters think he should -- Bud Day being one of them. His time as a POW obviously defines him, so they believe a lot of voters should hear more about it, Shep.
If McSame is reluctant to discuss his POW experience, it's because he's not particularly proud of it. I know people my age (60s) who, like me, occasionally utter a natural slip of the tongue, saying "Vietnam" when we mean "Iraq," the two wars are so similar in a kind of Rev. Wright context. That is, we have no business meddling in the affairs of other nations whose sovereign immunity we trample asunder, on the one hand to "stop communism"; on the other, to destabilize the Mideast so Bush cronies can make windfall profits off high-priced petroleum. If Obama can "make hay" with anything vis-a-vis McSame, it is that he cannot learn from history, which even explains the Arizona senator's flip-flop on torture.
What kind of a candidate for leader of the free world do we have in a person who claims that he was forced -- under torture -- to denounce America as an imperialist invader of Vietnam; then, for political expediency, 35 years later condone the same treatment he underwent at the hands of the Vietcong. Wikipedia's bio says "He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he would later write, 'I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine.'"
No sir, many men would rather have -- in fact, many have -- died than dishonor their country. I do not know what my own breaking point would be, nor do I have to find out: although of eligible age, I refused to serve in the Vietnam War. I knew it was as misguided and wrongful -- internationally criminal, really -- as the invasion of Iraq.
Obama was against this invasion. McSame was not. McSame has admitted he didn't bother to read the National Intelligence Estimate before joining the GOP majority in voting for the war. Obama knows his Santayana. A vote for McSame is a vote to condemn America to repeat its past.
Obama was against this invasion. McSame was not.
Ehh... mostly, but not completely true. Although he was initially against the war, he had changed his tone on several occasions, as well as acknowledging the facts of Saddam Hussein and his regime in regards to chemical/biological weapons, quest for nukes, and being a mass murderer:
Almost as soon as the war began in March 2003, Obama had second thoughts about his opposition to it. Watching the dramatic footage of the toppling of Saddam’s statue in Baghdad, and then the President’s speech aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, “I began to suspect,” he would write later in his autobiographical The Audacity of Hope (2006), “that I might have been wrong.”
And these second thoughts seem to have stayed with him throughout the entire first phase of the occupation following our initial combat victory. As he told the Chicago Tribune in July 2004, “There’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage.”
Indeed, Obama was not yet in the Senate, and the Senate had not yet voted to authorize the war, when, in a speech delivered in Chicago on October 2, 2002, he announced his view of the matter. Granting forthrightly that the Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein had “repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity,” and that he “butchers his own people,”
It is perfectly legitimate to argue, as Senator Obama does, that the war to liberate Iraq was ill-conceived and has cost us much more than it has been worth. It is also perfectly legitimate to argue, as Senator McCain does, that the war was eminently worth waging but that the Bush administration massively mishandled the phase following the ousting of the Baathist regime.
“I began to suspect,” he would write later in his autobiographical The Audacity of Hope (2006), “that I might have been wrong.”
Thinking people always second guess themselves (sometimes to a fault). Only dolts like Dubya are always convinced they are right, no matter what.
A slight modification:
It is perfectly legitimate to argue, as Senator Obama does, that the war to liberate Iraq [from its oil] was ill-conceived and has cost us much more than it has been worth.
It is also perfectly legitimate to argue, as Senator McCain does, that the war was eminently worth waging but that the Bush administration massively mishandled the phase following the ousting of the Baathist regime.
It's not perfectly legitimate. Even if the war and occupation went "well," Bush had no business invading Iraq.
The many television and internet video ads that you have seen, and will continue to see, that highlight Mr. McCain's experiences as a POW, are not actually promoting any particular qualification of Mr. McCain's for the Presidency; nor is that even the intention of those advertisements, by those who have made them.
The advertisements are intended to lay the groundwork for Democrats (or someone pretending to be a Democrat) to criticize those ads, or perhaps worse, criticize Mr. McCain... although upon what grounds Mr. McCain could ever be criticized, for his Honorable and Heroic Service during the Vietnam War, is beyond the grasp of any sane mind.
But that doesn't change the fact, that however Mr. McCain's experiences as a POW seem related or unrelated to any qualification for the Presidency, his Military Service and Sacrifice will be held out and made a public matter of consideration for all in this campaign... if for no other purpose but to bait someone into disrespecting that Service and Sacrifice... someone who will in turn be identified as a Democrat, or supporter of Sen. Obama (or Sen. Clinton), whether truly or not won't make any difference.
Because you're all veterans yourselves, of these kinds of media and political campaigns... and you know from your own experiences in them, that it makes not the least bit difference where a slander or insult or malicious and disrespectful remark actually comes from (or whether it is any verifiable fact that such a remark was ever even said)... it will be repeated ad nauseum... and you all know this from the experience, of being sickened by this type of thing before.
Whatever qualification to the Presidency Mr. McCain's Honorable and Heroic Service and Sacrifice in Vietnam might (or might not) seem to be, any public disrespect of his experience as a POW, will be seen as an extraordinary and indignant ingratitude toward a Soldier who Sacrificed so much for his country.
These ads are a setting up of bait... and the one who takes it, probably won't even truly be a Democrat or supporter of Sen. Obama's or Sen. Clinton's... but in the indignant heat that results from such disrespect and ingratitude, it really won't matter, will it.
Everything that was said on Fox was also said in Karl Rove's OpEd piece in the Wall Street Journal. The message that McCain is a humble, War Hero is being repeated over and over again.
http://s.wsj.net/article/SB120951606847454685.html
Its perfectly acceptable to claim that JM is using is previous war/POW experience to further his political career - as many previous military leaders have during their transition to politics (John Murtha anyone?), but to criticize him for his service is another thing. And to somehow link him as being a war mongering republican is a far stretch.
What I find quite humorous is how the left protests the war, and in trying to convince the right that the war is wrong, the same people doing so put themselves out there in the form of code pink:
http://www.foxnews.com/js/photoPop.html?2
Now, please inform me, how you expect anyone on the right or independant voters to take these people seriously.
Picture isnt working....but anyway, its a group of the current protesters out there practicing "witchcraft", and a lady trying to cast a spell with a Thor helmet on.
Its one thing to be adamantly against the war, and I can appreciate that. Its another look and act like a complete moron, and think you're actually going to persuade anyone with common sense to take you seriously. Long gone are the days when it was cool to wear tie-dye, sit in a circle, and smoke pot as a protest.
Its another look and act like a complete moron
Look in the mirror lately?
Its another look and act like a complete moron...
You do that with every post you make here, Columbus.
Smooth hump columbus. Dem takes the time to discribe the trap of any criticsim of John's military time and you carry on as if it doesn't exsist. Criticism of military time, ask John Kerry, John Murtha, and any other democratic veteran who has attained a public office and still had their patriotism questioned.
There's plenty of evidence that John is seriously looking at more global conflicts to get involved in. His history as a veteran has nada to do with that evidence. The equation veteran=warmonger is a classic strawman argument. What value it has in an honest discussion escapes me. As another question you can fail to answer, remind me of its value.
What I find quite humerous is, how many stupid snide remarks start with that phrase. 70% +or- a few are in the anti Iraq occupation camp. Yah if they really put their backs into it, it could be 80+%. Code Pink carrys on the tradition of street theater as protest. Please tell me(another request in vain I fear) how your critique of a highly sucessful tactic should be taken seriously.
You forgot cut the soles off my shoes, sit in a tree and learn to play the flute. Are the days also gone when the drug of choice on Wall Street was LSD?
Columbus, you mention above, the protesters acting and looking like morons and wondering why you would expect people on the right or independents to take them seriously. you are right.
Now, let us procede to another of your comments above..."the Bush Administration massively mishandled the phase following the ousting of the Baathist regime". Seems that you do not have any links for this for all to share. My question is How could ANYONE, Right, Left or Independent take Sen. McCain seriously when he continues to support the administration after they "MASSIVELY MISHANDLED" everything about this invasion/occupation? Can you take McCain seriously?
If memory serves me correctly, didn't the right wing (i.e. the Bush campaign) conduct a wispering campaign about John McCain in the 2000 primaries to the effect:
1. That McCain had received preferential treatment at the hands of captors once it was discovered who McCain's father was, including furloughs to an apartment furnished with female companionship?
2. That McCain had cooperated with his captors to such an extent that his code name was something like "Songbird"?
3. That McCain had lost his mind during of his captivity? Etc., etc.
I am not at all vouching for the credibility of these assertions but in light of them it does not surprise me if McCain is reluctant to speak about the details of his POW experience.
The truth of the matter is that McCain's POW experience has been a vital enabling force in McCain's successful political career. And it should be expected that his campaign will continue to milk it for all its worth. On the other hand, it can also be argued that being captured and held as a POW is not in itself a qualification for the presidency. And, after all these events happened over 40 years ago...
Nevertheless, in this particular moment in time when patriotism has been made an issue in the campaign McCain's unfortunate episode will be depicted as patriotism. The act of being captured and held prisoner is not in itself an act of patriotism...although what you did during the experience could be. The McCain campaign wants us to know that McCain was a POW for over five years, but I doubt if John McCain wants all of the details revealed.