FOX's “Campaign” Carl misstated the facts about Kerry rallies

Written by Jeremy Cluchey

Published

In an attempt to back up his characterization of the crowds at Kerry-Edwards '04 rallies as “very partisan,” FOX News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron, reporting from Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the August 2 edition of Your World w/ Neil Cavuto, falsely claimed that people who wish to attend Kerry-Edwards campaign rallies “have to go pick them [tickets] up from Democratic pick-up spots.”

From the August 2 edition of Your World:

CAMERON: The crowds [at the Kerry-Edwards rallies] -- these are very partisan crowds. It's worth noting that they do let the general public in, but it's essentially ticketed audiences, and they have to go pick them up from Democratic pick-up spots for tickets, so it's a very partisan group.

Perhaps Cameron is confusing the Kerry-Edwards campaign's ticketing practices with those of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Contrary to Cameron's reporting that tickets must be retrieved at “Democratic pick-up spots,” those who wish to attend Kerry rallies may, in fact, print their own complimentary tickets off the campaign website. Cameron also neglected to mention that it is the Bush-Cheney campaign that has required tickets for entry to its rallies.

On Saturday, July 31, both presidential campaigns held rallies near Zanesville, Ohio. An article in the Zanesville Times-Recorder on that day noted that, for the Bush-Cheney rally, “Only those with tickets will be admitted”; of the Kerry-Edwards event, the article stated, “While tickets are not required to attend the rally, they will be honored if the space cannot accommodate the crowds.”

In fact, getting into some Bush-Cheney campaign rallies requires even more than tickets. An August 1 article in The Washington Post reported that people seeking tickets to an event featuring Vice President Cheney in New Mexico were required to sign a loyalty oath to the Bush-Cheney campaign in order to receive the tickets:

[P]eople seeking tickets to the Cheney event who could not be identified as GOP partisans -- contributors or volunteers -- were told they could not receive tickets unless they signed an endorsement form saying “I, (full name) ... do herby (sic) endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States.” The form warns that signers “are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush.”