Media Spin Frantically Tries to Refocus the Debate on Bush

It is now day three of John Kerry's FootInMouthGate, and the media is furiously spinning his gutless "apology" in an effort to convince all of us that the issue is now settled. They know that every day Kerry stays in the news is another day lost that they could have used to bash Bush. However, their enthusiasm for ending the controversy is a little bit premature, and some of their facts are just plain wrong. For instance:

• A Washington reporter for the CW network opened her story this morning with "Now that the controversy over John Kerry's remarks is seemingly over", and then proceeded to rehash the story yet again. It ain't over if you're still talking about it.
• Front page headline in my local Orange County Register: "Kerry Issues Apology". The story is also on A-1 on most major newspapers around the country, thus keeping it alive for at least another day.
• The NY Times actually ran the story (imagine my surprise), but ran it in the Politics section and, according to this report from Patterico, misquoted Kerry's actual remarks. The NYT report, which doesn't even show the remarks until the 18th paragraph, says this:

  Mr. Kerry’s prepared remarks to California students on Monday called for him to say, “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.” In his delivery, he dropped the word “us.”
  
  

  He didn't just drop the word "us". He also dropped the words "Just ask President Bush." This is unbelievably sloppy reporting, and you can't help but think there's an effort there to make Kerry's remarks look a little more innocent. Perhaps the NYT readers (or writers) never look at the internet or haven't watched the dozens of TV reports during which have replayed Kerry's remarks, but I doubt it.
• The Kerry story will be guaranteed fodder for every conservative talk show in the country today, and I'm sure many of them will be talking about the fact that Kerry "apologized" on his website after cutting-and-running from the campaign trail. Not much sincerity there.
• Something else I've noticed in the media spin is the notion that Kerry apologized only after Dems started lining up against him. I don't believe that's true. I think Kerry realized an apology was necessary when this photo hit Drudge yesterday and was then reproduced in hundreds of news sites and blogs (by the way, a blogger mentioned by Hugh Hewitt on his show today surveyed all 520 newspapers that are available online, and only 2 ran this photo on the front page. Is there any wonder why newspaper readership is tanking?):
  

  

  It was the mockery from the military that forced Kerry to apologize, not a bunch of faux outrage from Dems. Kerry knows they weren't sincere.
• And to make sure the story lives another day, the AP (of all news agencies!) ran a story about similar remarks made by Kerry in 1972. More info here.

The Kerry kerfuffle is a lot of things, but what it isn't, is over.