It has arrived!
Yes, boys and girls, buried on Page 5 of 5 on the web edition of honest-to-betsy real live New York Times news article on the Swift Boat vets comes the following paragraph:
This week, as its leaders spoke with reporters, they have focused primarily on the one allegation in the book that Mr. Kerry’s campaign has not been able to put to rest: that he was not in Cambodia on Christmas Eve in 1968, as he declared in a statement to the Senate in 1986. Even Mr. Brinkley, who has emerged as a defender of Mr. Kerry [Any particular reason you didn’t mention that four pages ago when you were using him to discredit Swifties? Just askin’. -ed.], said in an interview that it was unlikely that Mr. Kerry’s Swift boat ventured into Cambodia on Christmas or Christmas Eve, though he said he believed that Mr. Kerry was probably there shortly afterward.
It’s like peering into some bizarre parallel universe where news reporters actually report the news! If, that is, by ‘report’, you mean ‘bury’, and by ‘bury’, you mean ‘ignore until you can’t possibly do so any longer and then stuff it in paragraph 61 of 65’.
‘Course, the entire rest of the piece is focused on finding every possible way to discredit the Swifties, but you didn’t expect any less than that, did you?
Update: More comments from Roger Simon.
PS: “This week, as its leaders spoke with reporters, they have focused primarily on the one allegation in the book that Mr. Kerry’s campaign has not been able to put to rest…” So, according to the Paper of Record, every single other allegation in Unfit for Command has been “put to rest” and bears no further investigation? I feel so much better now!