Canadian Cynic

Stolen Honor. Hacktacular? Craptacular? No, it's BOTH!

Kos managed to get a transcript of the anti-Kerry hatchet job film "Stolen Honor" and, oh lord, it is a vile piece of hackery. You don't need to read far into the transcript to feel your gorge rising but, what the hell, let's give it a shot, shall we?

SHERWOOD: My name is Carlton Sherwood and I am a journalist. [Ed. note: No, you're not. You're a partisan hack. There's a difference.] As an investigative reporter I have written about corruption in government, corporations and the military. I have helped to expose doctors who were actually ordering the starvation of handicapped infants, and charlatans who preached faith from the pulpit, but who practiced greed and deception in their personal lives. In every case the guilty party dishonoured their professions and they were made to answer for the hurt they caused. Tonight's report is cut from the same cloth.

Only for me, it's a lot more personal.

So, the first thing we learn is that filmmaker Carlton Sherwood is really really, really full of himself, oh, yes, he is. But you can learn everything you need to know about the loathsome dishonesty that is Carlton Sherwood just a couple paragraphs further down as Sherwood reproduces some alleged John Kerry testimony:

KERRY PICTURE FROM TESTIMONY

KERRY VOICEOVER: "...they had personally raped, cut off ears, cot [sic] off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam."

Whoa, that's powerful stuff -- John Kerry accusing his fellow soldiers of numerous atrocities. But hang on there -- what's with those suspicious ellipses? (For the Republicans among you, that's the three little dots.) Normally, they're used to represent, hmmmmm, irrelevant or superfluous text that's been omitted. Hmmmmm again. What might Kerry have said just before those words? It do make one curious, don't it? And to find out, one need only do a Google search on the phrase "they had personally raped" and, voila (for the Republicans among you, "Whoa, Nelly, lookee here!"), we can find, for example, here, what Kerry actually said:

"It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit [in a meeting with 150 Vietnam veterans], the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. "

Oh.

Dear.

You know, it's kind of important that Sherwood carefully excised those six opening words, "They told the stories at times ...". Yeah, those words are sort of crucial, aren't they, since it makes it clear that Kerry is not accusing anyone of these crimes, he's simply reciting stories that other veterans have told him. Ah, but such subtleties are clearly lost on Carlton Sherwood, journalist, investigative reporter and all-around partisan cinematic douchebag.

You'll forgive me if I stopped reading the transcript at that point. I'd seen pretty much all I needed to see.

SNOTTY LITTLE ADDENDUM: You know, given that filmmaker Sherwood is, like, you know, totally down on "corruption in government, corporations and the military", you'd think he'd just be all over Halliburton, wouldn't you? But a quick Google search on "Carlton Sherwood" plus "Halliburton" turns up a really lame 194 hits at the moment. And none of those seem all that related to taking Halliburton to task for anything. I guess Sherwood is just that kind of discriminating filmmaker. Quelle surprise. (Or, for the Republicans among you, "No shit, Sherlock".)