Josh posted a couple

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Josh posted a couple of weeks ago about the modus operandi of the AP‘s John Solomon: “His rep is as an easy mark for oppo researchers peddling their wares — and from both sides.”

So I was almost amused when I saw Solomon’s hit piece today on John Kerry. In a story that purports to follow up on Kerry’s botched Iraq joke (the headline is “Kerry’s ’72 Army comments mirror latest”), Solomon reports:

During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago,
John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to “the perpetuation of war crimes.”

Phrased that way, it appears that Kerry was linking being underprivileged to the commission of war crimes. But once you read the rest of Solomon’s piece it becomes pretty clear that Kerry thought that a professional army would be more likely to commit war crimes (which may be arguable but is not implausible) and also thought that an all-volunteer force would be comprised disproportionately (and unfairly) of the underprivileged. Solomon commits the causal fallacy of concluding that Kerry therefore said that the underprivileged are more likely to commit war crimes.

Now back to the Solomon MO. His sources for the story were “a former law enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities” and “someone who gathered” the document in which the comments appear”from archives during Kerry’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign.” The first source gave Solomon the tip. The second source, apparently an opposition researcher, provided the document.

Like I said, almost funny. Then I considered what a treasure trove the current national security apparatus must be yielding even as we speak for some oppo researcher to exploit against a yet unknown Iraq War veteran 34 years from now.

Latest Editors' Blog
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: