Robin Burk is accredited to this year's Conservative Political Action Conference as a member of the Winds of Change.NET team. She's covering CPAC as a private citizen and maybe a "citizen journalist" (if she could figure out what that means), as an academic studying the new media, and as an ordinary voter interested in national & international affairs. Robin is not affiliated with the organizations who sponsor CPAC.
After a little confusion about the location - hey, I got my aerobic exercise for the week running around! - I found the blogger breakfast. Speaking were John O'Neill and Bill Franke of the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth. The breakfast was sponsored by Creative Response Concepts, a public relations group that executed the Swift Vets effort to get their message out.
O'Neill started off by saying that the MSM have traditionally had a monopoly on information dissemination. O'Neill claimed that several reporters met with the Swifties, seemed to be personally convinced of the truth of their claims but noted that they, or their editors, wouldn't publish that because it might help Bush get elected. The first Swift Vets site was repeatedly hack attacked until they put up a much more secure and hardened one.
Franke ended by thanking the blogs for getting the word out and digging for facts. Money quote:
"Those in uniform are the most defenseless of people because they cannot respond to political attacks."
So, where does the controversy sit now? Does it still matter? Did I learn any new information? Here's a quick summary...
The Past
O'Neill and Franke were adamant that they had no interest in character assassination. O'Neill said he was approached to attack Kerry during several Senate runs and refused. But they, and the other 260+ Swifties and POWs, were convinced based on long knowledge of him that Kerry is unfit to be Commander in Chief of the U.S. Military. I asked them if they think that they had influenced people towards restoring the public image of our military after Vietnam and the 70s. O'Neill and Franke both believe that the result of their activity is that politically motivated attacks on the military have been deterred but not really ended.
Interesting estimate: The first Swift Boat ad generated approximately $40-50 million worth of 'earned media exposure'. The Kerry campaign actually showed a clip of the ad, plus the group's URL, in their response - rather counterproductive.
The Future
2008? Kerry says he's the frontrunner for the Democrats and he has at least a few supporters. He probably won't run on his Vietnam record again, but the Swifties and POWs who are still alive in 3 years have made it clear they aren't going to go away.
UPDATE - THE IMPASSE: Sam Donaldson made it clear in his debate with Bob Novack that while most in the breakfast room supported the Swifties, he either hasn't read or doesn't accept their account of events in Vietnam. People are still talking past one another on this. Kerry hasn't signed Form 180, just as CNN hasn't pressed for release of the Davos tape, so the same sort of he said/she said impasse is lingering about Kerry's service in Vietnam. Limited modified hangout combined with stonewall? Or reasonable self-defense against a baying mob?
Be sure to check out the other CPAC accredited bloggers:
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