Under pressure from Democrats, at least one television station is reported to have dropped the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that charges John Kerry has lied about his Vietnam war record.
WBAY in Green Bay, Wisc., refused to run it, according to Human Events. Although initially WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, was reported to have dropped the ad after the Kerry campaign used a story in the Boston Globe yesterday to convince the station’s management it was false, the station’s website now indicates the ad will air.
But Human Events reported all of the other targeted stations in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia plan to run it.
WBAY President and General Manager Don Carmichael told Human Events his station will not broadcast the ad “on advice of counsel.”
Carmichael stated that after reviewing the affidavits of the veterans, seeing the commercial and hearing the pro-Kerry “counter-claims,” his station decided to refuse it.
He would not elaborate on the “counter-claims.”
As WorldNetDaily reported, lawyers for the Democratic National Committee and Kerry’s presidential campaign faxed a letter to television station managers warning them not to broadcast the ad.
The letter, posted by Human Events [Requires PDF viewer], tells the managers if they decide to air it they are “responsible for the false and libelous charges” made by the veterans group.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the new TV commercial is a montage of remarks from a number of veterans who accuse Kerry of misrepresenting his actions for medals and attack his character.
Yesterday, an article in the Boston Globe by Michael Kranish said one of the veterans in the ad, George Elliott, backed off a key contention of a book to be released next week by the veterans group, “Unfit for Command.”
But the Swift Boat Vets responded with a statement saying Elliott considers the Globe story “extremely inaccurate” and “highly misleading” and “reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his request that the ad be played.”
Kranish, who is covering the Kerry campaign, wrote the foreword to the official Kerry-Edwards campaign book and is listed as the lead author, the Drudge Report noted today.
Telephoned for comment yesterday, Kranish declined to speak on the record with WorldNetDaily but forwarded a statement from the Globe which said the paper stands by the story.
“The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate,” said the statement by Globe Editor Martin Baron.
Baron asserted it is “completely untrue” that Kranish “was ever contracted to write for a Kerry campaign publication.”
The editor explained that “earlier this summer, Kranish worked with Public Affairs, the publisher of the Boston Globe biography of Kerry, ‘John Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best,’ to write a short introduction to a second project: an independent, unauthorized review of publicly available documents dealing with the platform and policy statements of Kerry and Edwards.”
Baron said that when Public Affairs “subsequently struck an agreement with the Kerry campaign to do an official campaign book, Kranish’s relationship with the project immediately ended.”
Related offer:
“Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry”
Related stories:
Vet denies retraction of Kerry war criticism
Book: Kerry took no enemy fire for medal
Dems press TV stations to shun vets’ ad
White House avoids criticism of Vets’ ad
Vets: Kerry lied to get Silver Star
Kerry’s Viet comrades call him a liar in TV ad
Kerry’s wounds self-inflicted?
Kerry flip-flop on war footage
Controversy over Kerry’s re-enacted war scenes
Anti-Kerry vets to sue candidate?
Kerry honored at communist museum
‘Kerry lied while good men died’
