To My Fellow War Criminals:
To see how clever these bastards in the press can be, the following is a classic example of how you slant a story to favor your own bias. Both sides do it. It is dishonest, it is unethical, it is deceptive, and it is an accepted practice in the press today. No mention of the dirtbag Michael Moore's propaganda; apparently Caruso thinks that it's okay if Moore does it.
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Former POWs Blame Kerry for Captivity
Thu Oct 21, 2:51 AM ET
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA - Former U.S. prisoners of war who blamed their years of captivity in Vietnam on activists such as John Kerry (news - web sites) are the only voices in a documentary that Sinclair Broadcasting has decided not to air in its entirety.
Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a decorated Navy lieutenant who returned from Southeast Asia disillusioned. He organized anti-war protests in Washington and testified against the conflict before the Senate.
The 42-minute film, titled, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," is a one-sided view of Kerry's anti-war activities. It consists mostly of interviews with U.S. prisoners of war who survived imprisonment and torture in Hanoi, and emerged enraged at Kerry and others for suggesting they had suffered for an unjust cause.
No one opposed to the war or supportive of Kerry is interviewed in the film.
No historians are questioned about the documentary's premise that Kerry, then a little-known activist, single-handedly extended the fighting in Vietnam by two years and delayed the return of American prisoners by telling Congress in 1971 that U.S. forces had committed human rights violations.
Dr. Ernest Bolt, a history professor at the University of Richmond, said it was unlikely that Kerry's testimony directly affected how long the POWs were held, or how long the war lasted. He said Kerry's importance in the anti-war movement has been exaggerated since he began running for president.
Kerry was the spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
After enduring a week of criticism, Sinclair said Tuesday that the special, now scheduled to be broadcast Friday on about 40 stations, would contain only segments of the film and would be part of a wider look at the use of documentaries to influence elections.
That leaves the full version of "Stolen Honor" available mostly by mail-order or over the Internet.
"Stolen Honor" was produced and narrated by Carlton Sherwood, a former journalist who worked in the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, now secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Bush administration.
It includes interviews with more than a dozen former POWs describing the torture they endured in Hanoi, and their certainty that they would have been released sooner if Kerry and other activists hadn't accused the United States of committing war crimes.
"We stayed two more years because of him," said Jack H. Fellowes, who was imprisoned for 6 1/2 years.
Kerry never accused the POWs of committing war crimes and spoke only in general about the conduct of U.S. troops. The film also falsely implies that Kerry either committed atrocities himself or personally witnessed them. Kerry told Congress he was summarizing accusations made by other servicemen at an earlier event, and not relaying personal experiences.
"Stolen Honor" argues that in repeating uncorroborated, and possibly fabricated, tales that U.S. soldiers had raped Vietnamese women, mutilated bodies and randomly shot at civilians, Kerry unfairly blackened the reputation of all servicemen.
Bolt said scholars continue to debate how widespread human rights abuses were during the war.
"There are some people among Vietnam vets who don't want to acknowledge any atrocities, but in fact they did happen." he said. "Whether they happened as often as Vietnam Veterans Against the War made them out to be, though, is a matter of debate."