Like the "Dean Scream"

Like the “Dean Scream”

You’re a Vermonter, so you know there was no “Dean scream,” right? You know, as people who were there have pointed out to no avail, that the place was roaring with sound, and Dean had to roar to get his voice heard over the crowd, and the national media people played back his voice and showed his face out of context and nailed him—right? Maybe later I’ll fish out of my files the Middlebury College student’s report from seeing that incident as it developed. Trust me, anyone who trusts me: there was no “Dean scream.”

As a conscientious local reporter now into my 25th year, I am appalled at the national media’s laziness and more turpitude, always willing to follow along on some easy-to-believe and hard-to-prove version of things. That attitude dates back to the fall of1967, when students at my college who stayed at the Pentagon after the TV cameras left held a rally to report how the 82nd Airborne came through and clubbed anyone they could with rifle butts, including one obviously pregnant woman. Kent State, after that, was nothing exceptional for me. But the commanders knew they were safe from all but a few investigative cranks and the underground newspaper movement (Remember Yvonne Daley? She went through journalistic basic training with the Liberation News Service.)

In the 1976,my wife and I listened to a National Public Radio forum at which Democratic candidates gave answers to questions. We were struck by the completeness of Jimmy Carter’s responses, sketching out the positions and showing where and how his thinking was leaning and frankly admitting when he didn’t know something. Later, we were dismayed to hear the national press twist this into a reluctance to give clear answers.

Well, he won anyway, but the national press people weren’t through with him. Remember the “killer rabbit” story, how he supposedly fended off this rabbit from climbing into his canoe in the swamp? If you want to know the truth, and see the picture that initiated the furor, go to http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/killer_rabbit.html (I’d copy the picture here, but out of respect to the source’s wishes, I’m substituting the url. If it doesn’t work, back up to www.narsil.org and then go into the submenus.)

Now we have Hillary Clinton’s remarks concerned Bobby Kennedy. At first I rejoiced that someone finally dared to say what so many were thinking, that if there were only one candidates so far into new electoral territory, the chances of some nutcase deciding to cast a heavy ballot with a sniper rifle would increase.

Then I heard Clinton’s actual statement, on Vermont Public Radio, of course. She didn’t mean anything of the kind. She was just free associating along to the point that campaigns like hers had lasted even longer, and grabbed onto the date peg that RFK’s assassination provided.

She might not have meant it, but I do. I'll say it straight: those who founded this country walked into what they saw as a fearsome wilderness clutching guns and Bibles, and their descendants have never been able to let go of either. There is a homicidal streak in America that can strike like lightning from a blue sky. Assassination is one of the worst enemies of democracy—which is to say, fear and a sense of futility are two of democracy’s worst enemies. It’s the very worst form of electoral cheating. The price of liberty is indeed eternal vigilance, and assassination one of the things that the security services, at least, must constantly suspect.

Here’s a little exercise you can try: find a flat area, pick an easily visible starting point, and take 800 striding steps. In other words, walk 800 yards. Now turn and look back at the starting point, if you can see it. That’s 25 yards less than the range at which an Army M-24 rifle can target and kill someone.

But who needs a sniper rifle when the national media are (ARE, not is) so good at character assassination?

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