The Scrutinator

ABC News' Nightline segment (Oct 14, 2004) attempts to debunk the Swiftboat Veterans account of Kerry's silver star. To do so, they go to the same spot the battle was fought and interview villagers. And the villagers verify Kerry's version.

This story seems like junk journalism. Here's why.

First, and most fundamentally, as John O'Neill alluded to, Vietnam is run by a dictatorial communist party: "Freedom House considers Vietnam to be a not free [sic] country." This casts very serious doubt on all villagers' testimony. ABC ignores this fact. In fact, they seem to cast the government as benign: "it did not want to somehow influence the U.S. presidential election." If communist, dictatorial North Korea endorses Kerry, perhaps Vietnam does as well.

But just for the sake of argument, lets say the people are free to speak. And lets say they found the right village. The story still doesn't answer these questions:

• How do we know they're not confusing different battles? As ABC reports, "the area was a hotbed of guerrilla activity" and Viet Cong "reinforcements had been dispatched from provincial headquarters specifically to target the Swift boats." So it's likely that wasn't the only battle there. ABC should have found an after-action report from the same location or area, but for a different battle on a different date (even year), and see how well they distinguished the two. (Assuming they weren't leading their witnesses.)
• Was each witness interviewed independently and specifically? Each should have been asked to describe what specifically transpired, with diagrams, names of comrades, etc. (How many Swift boats were involved? How did they get away? How long did they stay away? Where was this "rest and supply area"?) How well would those various accounts corroborate? We're vaguely led to believe this happened. ABC should release all such diagrams and word-for-word testimony (but I doubt any exists).
• The stories they do tell don't seem to corroborate very well. That doesn't mean it couldn't have happened, but the further the stories diverge, the more doubt is cast.
• Why do the various Kerry biographies disagree? Nightline neither showed those quotes, nor do they interview the authors of those books.

By The Scrutinator @ 6:08 PM