Many of us have written or phoned our complaint about the misleading AP article by Tom Raum.
He has even responded to some people here, as has an AP editor.
However, I think we've been fighting the wrong battle.
More below the jump...
The primary complaint has been that Raum made it sound like the Swift Boat Liars were on Kerry's boat by saying they served on the same "vessels".
AP acknowledged the mistake and apparently corrected it by changing the sentence to say they served on the same type of vessell.
Fine. So as far as AP is concerned, the article is now accurate.
But that correction fixes the wrong mistake.
Their mistake wasn't a failure to clearly state that the Swift Boat Liars served on the same type of boat. Rather, it was in not making it clear that none of the accusers served on Kerry's boat at all.
If we accept Raum's explanation at face value and believe that he was simply trying to write that they served on the same type of boat as Kerry, the question then is:
WHY DID HE THINK THAT MATTERED TO HIS STORY?
Tom Raum and/or his editors chose which facts were relevant to the story... so why does Tom Raum believe that the fact they served on the same type of boat as Kerry matters more than the fact that they weren't actually on Kerry's boat?
I believe their correction should have been to insert a sentence saying, "None of the Swift Boat Veterans served on Kerry's boat with him."
What we ought to be complaining about is the author choosing a tangential fact (one that seems to help manufacture credibility where none exists) over a relevant fact that proves the slanderous nature of the charge.
I hope that those who are stil writing and calling to voice complaintswill focuse the editors and Mr. Raum on the bias inherent in their selection of which fact to include and which to omit rather than the mistake in the way Raum's sentence was crafted.