Diana West in the Washington Times says Thomas now asserts that the MSM are only good for 5%, not 15%, in the work they are doing for the Kerry campaign. She also notes some disgraceful aspects of that work:

Here we are, on the brink, possibly, of electing a self-confessed war criminal to the Oval Office — a man who, as an American officer, parlayed with the enemy, and… nothing. No questions, no stories. No thoughts, no curiosity. We contemplate a new wartime leader whose political epiphany — the famous Christmas in Cambodia, “seared, seared” into Mr. Kerry’s memory — never happened. Questions, stories in the MSM? Not a one.

And she offers this further indictment:

But in the land of the free and the free press, we shouldn’t have to rely on the unique gumption of, say, a John O’Neill, the Swiftee spokesman who went so far as to write a best-selling book about John Kerry (“Unfit for Command“) to publicize crucial information the MSM ignored. I remember well the veritable news blackout on the Swift Boat vets when they first assembled last spring in downtown Washington. The Associated Press didn’t even send a correspondent, calling the group’s press conference “old news” before it happened.

This vote on November 2 is a referendum on the MSM, as West says. But Evan Thomas was right the first time — the MSM has been good for 15 points for the Democratic ticket.

UPDATE

INDC has a very interesting elaboration on the Newsweek spin that was put in place during the very week that Evan Thomas made his comments.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 22nd, 2004 at 9:24 am and is filed under General, New Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.