How to Dissect the Corporate, Complicit Media..., page 1

....for the upcoming election season. They've planted the perception that many here have been parroting on Dean, now the slime machine turns to the new front runner. Today's Example ( From the AP no less ):

AP: Kerry Pocketed Speaking Fees

WASHINGTON (AP) - Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show.

( Ok class, here you have a big attention lead off headline, the kind that will get snagged nicely from any type of Lexus search, touting how Kerry took speaking fees; the implication being that he's owned by special interests.
BUT, we have in the very first sentance what should have made the editor NOT print the story since it's a non-issue - "Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups".
AMAZING !!!!!!)

Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

( Here we have a continuation on the non-strory theme: He stayed under the cap amount on fees. He chose to keep the money he earned the majority of the time. So, back when he started and had the opportunity to work PT on the speaking circuit in order to break to $100K plateau, at $1K a pop, he was 'owned' by the implication they are trying to draw. Remember, he didn't marry into money until later.
All this is then justified as journalism with this line: " according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press." WOW !! You mean that me, Seekof, Nerdling, Colonel or anyone who can access a vote records web site is an AP Caliber Journalist!?!?! )

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Kerry, who sharply criticizes special interest money and big oil companies while campaigning, earned handsomely from some of Washington's most famous lobbies as well as corporate America.

For instance, oil giant Chevron paid him $2,000 in 1986 for participating in a round-table discussion. Large financial companies, among them Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, also paid to hear Kerry speak, as did the Chicago Board of Trade and defense contractors such as Allied Signal and Textron.

Kerry also spoke for pay to the National Restaurant Association ($1,000 in 1985), the National Association of Independent Insurers ($1,000 in 1986), the American Bankers Association ($2,000 in 1986) and the National Association of Manufacturers.

``It certainly didn't seem to influence his voting record,'' said Laura Brown Narvaiz, a spokeswoman for the NAM, which paid Kerry $1,000 for a speech in September 1986. ``I don't think he voted in favor of our positions very many times.''

(So we, thanks to the complicit media, are to believe that Chevron " Owns" JFK because he "earned handsomly" the WHOPPING FEE , once, OF $2000 !?!?
Yet for all of this supposed largasse "heaped on JFK" to sway & influence, you have the "news article" ending with a testament that his voting record seldom correlated to an influenced vote.)

cnn.aimtoday.cnn.com.../ff/story/0001%2F20040209%2F0328161536.htm&sc=1131

This is the state of American Journalism folks, whores for the cause.
They put upon the candidate who made the mistake of saying how he'd shut them down, and now they've laid the attack plan out against the candidate who will likely challenge the caretakers of their interests - the Bush Administration.
Tough keeping down the bile, no?