Left In Lowell

Media Matters catalogs the outrage perpetrated by the MSM on Kerry, over his tearless announcement that he wasn’t going to run for president. I watched quite a lot of that speech. Did the stupid Globe reporter even do as much?

My god, on such a simple, simple item, the press just can’t resist sexing up a story for the hell of it. And you wonder why blogs are disgusted with the state of the media today?

Lordy, even the Sun couldn’t resist, although at least they didn’t overdo it. “Kerry, almost moved to tears, announced on the floor of the U.S. Senate that there would be no encore performance to his failed 2004 bid for the White House…”

Indeed, Media Matters clears things up, and gives us - *gasp!* - context:

For the record, at no point did Kerry shed any tears on the floor of the Senate last Wednesday; he simply did not “cry.” Rather, during a single sentence Kerry became emotional and his voice caught. The press’ key distortion though, was that the single sentence had nothing to do with running for president again. Instead, Kerry was momentarily overcome with emotion when he noted that the misguided war in Iraq threatened to undo everything he had fought for since his return from Vietnam more than three decades ago.

As The Chicago Tribune’s political blog, The Swamp, accurately noted, “It was when Kerry talked about coming home from Vietnam that he choked up.”

Still, members of the press blissfully manufactured the storyline suggesting the senator shed tears of self-pity over his dashed presidential hopes.

Media Matters then points to the video and encourages readers to go watch it for themselves. Fast forward to the 29th minute “if you want to see only the final six minutes, which is where the news was made.”

I hereby present the mainsteam press with the title of “Completely Lame.”

[HT: dKos]