The TV War

It's hard to know who is winning the TV war. It's hard to know even how to fight it.

But we can observe. Cheney talking about the Bush success in Iraq on split-screen with the fiery ruins of the latest bombing can only be described as cognitive dissonance.

Earlier, John Kerry spoke out against the Bush Iraq policy. Newspapers covered both speeches, and other talk of the day, with relative fairness and completeness. But not all television did.

CNN showed very little of the Kerry speech. It didn't show the presence of former Secretary of State Albright or the former Army Chief of Staff with him on the stage. Other cable TV reports continued the theme of how high the conflict is at this stage of the campaign, without dealing much with substance.

The issue that won't go away is the "foreign leaders" statement. Sec of State Powell and other Bushies tried it out on Sunday, cynically playing the card Kerry dealt them by pretending that by not naming names of leaders who are anxious for a regime change in the U.S., it must mean Kerry is lying. Even though they know he can't betray confidences, and most leaders aren't going to go public while they still have to deal with the Bushies.

They got traction on it, and took it a step farther, as Theron indicated. Cheney has since repeated the implication several times that not only is Kerry not being honest and forthcoming, but hinting darkly that he's promised things he shouldn't to foreigners he shouldn't be dealing with.

It didn't help that Howard Dean linked the failures in Iraq to the terrorist bombing in Spain. It's not Kerry's view, but it enabled Ed Gillespie, GOP National Committee chair, to piggyback Dean's comment on the ongoing smear to Kerry's honesty and patriotism, this time explicitly using the T word: "We cannot allow presidential candidates or their surrogates to become mouthpieces for terrorists. Blaming freedom-loving people for these attacks is not the way to defeat the scourge of global terror."

Kerry didn't help himself this week by getting quoted saying that he voted for the $89 billion appropriation for Iraq and the U.S. military before he voted against it. It just plays into the Bush theme of flip-flopping, however accurately it describes the legislative process of voting conditionally (if Bush cut back on tax cuts to the very wealthy to pay for this) before voting against final passage when conditions aren't met.

And someone should have told him not to make a speech on military policy wearing a pink tie.

It's hard enough being perfect on the campaign trail, and fighting an attack machine that has tons of money and absolutely no scruples, which takes the greatest delight in the successful lie. But the Kerry campaign also has to take into consideration the way these things are covered on TV. The emphasis on conflict, the corporate media bias, and the sheer idiocy.

Speaking of Rudi Bactiar, the CNN Headline News anchor who chirps and emotes incongruously throughout prime time: it's hard to believe that this person can help determine the fate of the planet. But there you are. I guess Kurt Vonnegut isn't surprised, and Joseph Heller wouldn't be.

Today Rudi demanded of a Washington Post reporter on the phone, doesn't Kerry have to name those names of foreign leaders who said they support him? The reporter repeated the retraction of the Boston Globe reporter who incorrectly quoted Kerry in the first place, and mentioned that Cheney upped the ante even more by saying that these leaders had "endorsed" Kerry, which clearly they haven't. But Rudi was not deterred by this kind of quibbling. Shouldn't these European leaders Kerry was talking about be named? she insisted.

So we've gone from a reporter's mistake, to "foreign leaders," to foreign leaders endorsing Kerry, to Rudi deciding they are European leaders. And from unsubstantiated charges to lying to being unpatriotic to being a mouthpiece for terrorists. And that's from Sunday to Wednesday.

It turns out that Kerry has been making those policy statements we suggested he should go ahead and make (including one today, Thursday). It's just that nobody is covering them as such. But Kerry has to talk about this foreign leaders flap. For one thing, it will definitely be covered. He has to lay out this whole scenario, from the cynicism--and why the Bushies know he can't name names---to the smears. It's exhibit A. If he tells it like this, it will help him. If he ignores it, it may stick in people's minds and hurt him, or it could even get worse. He has to call them out on it...And find another color tie.