Posted 10:26 AM by Robert

But John Kerry Is An Honorable Man II: Into The Mainstream?

The story of John Kerry's possibly less-than-honorable discharge from the Navy first broached by the New York Sun is virtually omnipresent in the Blogosphere.

Captain's Quarters has lots of good commentary on the incendiary topic in a post headlined Questions About Kerry's Discharge Make The Mainstream Media. I think it's fine to consider the New York Sun "mainstream," and the Sun article was noted by OpinionJournal with the caveat We're not sure what to make of all this, but have the questions otherwise made it to the mainstream?

The seems to be nothing on the topic in the New York Times, the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal news pages or the Los Angeles Times. Not even the DRUDGE REPORT has so much as mentioned the Sun questions.

What's going on?

The pattern so far seems a bit like that of the original Swiftee charges: before the first television ad, lots of action in the Blogosphere by even following the first ad, willful neglect by Kerry-Edwards and most of the mainstream media (although Fox News at least mentioned the controversy, if only to dismiss the first ad as "ineffective") until it was clear the ad was, in fact, devastating Kerry-Edwards. But not everything is the similar: DRUDGE was in the first wave of the original Swiftee media assault, but he's is missing in action now.

Media coverage of the original Swiftee charges really hotted up with their first television ad - even the publication of their book was ignored by the mainstream before that ad appeared. Now Sinclair Broadcasting documentary is about to run a controversial documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal." Very little has been disclosed about the content of this documentary, but it is supposed to deal with Senator Kerry's post-Vietnam exploits. The documentary was apparently created before the Sun story ran - but the content of the Sun story has been the subject of serious rumors for months. If that documentary at least touches on the less-than-honorable discharge subject, perhaps its broadcast will turn up the media heat in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Or maybe there's something seriously wrong with this story.