sábado, agosto 21, 2004
Journalist Breaks Silence to Defend Kerry Against Swift Boaters
By E & P Staff
NEW YORK - A Chicago Tribune metro editor who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday to say that stories told by Kerry's "Swift Boat" detractors are untrue.
William Rood wrote on the newspaper's Web site, and in an article published Sunday, "There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969
"One is John Kerry ... who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other."
Rood had long refused interviews, but Saturday he declared, "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have sought to undermine Kerry's record in TV ads and a bestselling book.
In the Chicago Tribune article, Rood said Kerry urged him to go public, but he added, "what matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did."
It was a very difficult decision for Rood to write the first-person account, Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said in an interview Sunday morning on WBBM-TV in Chicago.
"Bill came to us Wednesday (Aug. 18) after receiving a call from Senator Kerry," O'Shea said. "He had refused to speak about it publicly, even with our own Tribune reporters. He didn't want to become embroiled in a political campaign."
But Rood told Tribune editors that he believed the recent ads from other Swift Boat veterans of the Vietnam war "was tarnishing the reputations" of all those involved in the disputed Feb. 28, 1969 incident on the Dong Cung tributary of the Bay Hap River.
"We will respect your silence,'' O'Shea said he told Rood. "If you don't want to express yourself, that's okay. You can just go your way and be a metro editor." But O'Shea also told him, "if you are going to talk about it, I want you to write about it in the Chicago Tribune and not in a competing publication."
The Tribune has no axe to grind in the dispute between Kerry and his critics, O'Shea said: "This is one person's account of what happened, and we feel we owe it to the readers to share it with them."
NEW YORK - A Chicago Tribune metro editor who commanded a boat alongside John Kerry in Vietnam broke a 35-year silence on Saturday to say that stories told by Kerry's "Swift Boat" detractors are untrue.
William Rood wrote on the newspaper's Web site, and in an article published Sunday, "There were three swift boats on the river that day in Vietnam more than 35 years ago -- three officers and 15 crew members. Only two of those officers remain to talk about what happened on February 28, 1969
"One is John Kerry ... who won a Silver Star for what happened on that date. I am the other."
Rood had long refused interviews, but Saturday he declared, "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have sought to undermine Kerry's record in TV ads and a bestselling book.
In the Chicago Tribune article, Rood said Kerry urged him to go public, but he added, "what matters most to me is that this is hurting crewmen who are not public figures and who deserved to be honored for what they did."
It was a very difficult decision for Rood to write the first-person account, Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said in an interview Sunday morning on WBBM-TV in Chicago.
"Bill came to us Wednesday (Aug. 18) after receiving a call from Senator Kerry," O'Shea said. "He had refused to speak about it publicly, even with our own Tribune reporters. He didn't want to become embroiled in a political campaign."
But Rood told Tribune editors that he believed the recent ads from other Swift Boat veterans of the Vietnam war "was tarnishing the reputations" of all those involved in the disputed Feb. 28, 1969 incident on the Dong Cung tributary of the Bay Hap River.
"We will respect your silence,'' O'Shea said he told Rood. "If you don't want to express yourself, that's okay. You can just go your way and be a metro editor." But O'Shea also told him, "if you are going to talk about it, I want you to write about it in the Chicago Tribune and not in a competing publication."
The Tribune has no axe to grind in the dispute between Kerry and his critics, O'Shea said: "This is one person's account of what happened, and we feel we owe it to the readers to share it with them."
# posted by Rui Ferreira @ 10:14 da manhã 
