Doug Ross @ Journal

The mainstream media: another outage

I've said for quite some time (or at least, for a few days) that had the MSM honestly and objectively investigated John Kerry's background with the vigor with which they attacked the president, the election would have been a complete blowout. 60% to 39% or some such ratio. Why?

Consider the fact that John Kerry released neither his service records nor his medical records. Shocked? No one from the MSM questioned these rather appalling "details". Or contemplate the MSM's refusal to air the complaints of the Swiftvets. Had an even casual accounting of John Kerry's service records been investigated (e.g., Christmas in Cambodia, the admitted self-inflicted Purple Heart, etc.), the Swiftvets would have ended the Kerry campaign in August.

And Patterico nails something else I hadn't thought of:

During the campaign, Hugh Hewitt argued that John Kerry was running a terrible campaign, which should cause Americans concern about the type of president he would be. I was initially skeptical of this argument. After all, most people agree that Karl Rove, not George Bush, was the mastermind behind the Bush campaign. If Karl Rove can run a better campaign than Kerry, does that necessarily mean that Bush would be a better president than Kerry? But it turns out that Hugh's observation was dead right, as a recent appearance by Newsweek's Evan Thomas on the Today Show confirms. (Transcript available on NEXIS.) Thomas revealed a Kerry campaign in chaos -- headed by a John Kerry so paralyzed with indecision that campaign staffers took his cell phone away from him so he would stop calling people for advice: Mr. THOMAS: The Kerry campaign was even worse run than you think. Kerry was a bad manager. He could never make up his mind. He would dither and he'd second-guess every decision. They had to take away his cell phone twice, because every time they made a decision he'd get on his cell phone and start calling a hundred of his closest friends. Now, we heard a little something about Kerry's penchant for calling friends for advice when he was picking his vice-presidential nominee. But even Thomas agrees that the full extent of the chaos in the Kerry campaign was not revealed to the American people during the campaign: LAUER: What would be the biggest surprise? You had great access. The average American, what would they be most surprised about that goes on inside campaigns at this level of politics? Mr. THOMAS: I think the kind of level of chaos and that they don't--it's not that--well, the Bush campaign was pretty organized, but I think the disorganization of the Kerry campaign is going to be shocking. If a presidential candidate is running a shockingly disorganized campaign, paralyzed by the candidate's indecision, the American people have a right to know. So why weren't we told the full truth until now -- when it's too late?? ...

Patterico: MSM and Kerry's Indecisiveness