BCT Editorial – 7/4/07

This page was last updated on July 9, 2007.

Business as usual; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 4, 2007.

You won’t be surprised to learn some of the “facts” as presented in the editorial are at odds with other reporting on this topic.

The day after I wrote this critique, I heard a third version of the story on WPGB’s (104.7 MHz) “Quinn & Rose” morning show (7/9/07). I’m disinclined to believe this tale, but here it is anyway.

Jim Quinn tasked a source of his named “Son of Deepthroat” (SoD) to dig into the story as told by J.D. Prose. (Note: Be very skeptical of anonymous sources like SoD.) SoD told Mr. Quinn the whole thing was a setup. According to SoD, all congressmen know the rules about White House tours and the preferential treatment for Afghanistan/Iraq Gold Star parents. The reason for the alleged special treatment is because the shear number of Gold Star families from Vietnam and previous wars make preferential treatment impractical. (Note: As you’ll read below, the White House claims there is no such policy.) Despite knowing this, Mr. Altmire’s office submitted the request anyway and purposely didn’t mention Cpl. Larry Boyer died in Vietnam. Anyway, when the Boyers’ tour was allegedly rejected because the White House learned Cpl. Boyer died in Vietnam, Mr. Altmire’s office ran to a sympathetic ear, Mr. Prose, to tell the world how mean President Bush was. According to Mr. Quinn, a Lexis/Nexis search revealed the Boyers are/were financial supporters of Howard Dean and George Soros-associated 527s. (Note: I checked FEC data on the Center for Responsive Politics website and found no contributions to anyone under any of the Boyer names mentioned in the editorial.)

That wasn’t the end, however. SoD asserted the situation is even worse and included a conspiracy. According to SoD, the Boyers were only one of five Gold Star families requesting White House tours via Democrat congressmen during the past few weeks under exactly the same circumstances. Instead of going to national papers, the Democrat congressmen reported their disgust to local papers with the expectation they would accept the story as told and not attempt to check the facts, as apparently was the case with Mr. Prose. The intent wasn’t to hurt President Bush’s approval rating by us, but to hurt his still strong support by those serving in the Armed Forces.

As I mentioned above, I doubt Mr. Quinn’s version of the story. There are at least three reasons why. First, Mr. Quinn used an anonymous source. Second, as I noted above, my check of FEC data showed no campaign contributions by the Boyers to liberals as Mr. Quinn alleged. Third, Mr. Quinn alleged there were at least four other cases similar to that of the Boyers. A Google search found no hits to support that allegation.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Sometimes little things say a lot.”

[RWC] Yep, and even more frequently editorials use a lot of words to say very little.

“Such is the case of the Gold Star mother from Ellwood City who was denied a tour of the White House.

“Allys Boyer, 84, lost her son Larry when he was 22 years old. A corporal in the Marine Corps, he was killed in May 1969 while on patrol in Vietnam. His name is on the Wall in Washington, D.C.

“Boyers [sic] and her two daughters, Sandra Lee Boyer of Zelienople and Beverly Boyer of Arizona, wanted to visit the Vietnam Memorial to see his name and to tour the White House.

“The latter would have taken some doing because tour arrangements need to be made months in advance. However, the office staff of U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, citing Boyer’s status as a Gold Star mother, got her in for a tour.

“All in all, it was a nice, feel-good story - until the Bush White House messed it up.

“As columnist J.D. Prose reported on Sunday, after finding out that Boyer’s son was killed in Vietnam, the White House rescinded its permission, saying that the preferential treatment was only for families of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

[RWC] Remember, “columnist” means an opinion writer, not a news reporter. Read Mr. Prose’s column and you find the sole source for his piece was “Christina Stacey, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4.” It appears Mr. Prose made absolutely no effort to confirm the details presented to him. When you write opinion columns instead of news articles, does that mean you don’t need to check your facts? Then again, a politician’s spokesperson would never give a self-serving version of events, would she? <g>

The Associated Press reported the story a bit differently. Here are a few excerpts. “The White House contends the tour for Boyer, of Ellwood City, Pa., was never confirmed. … Alex Conant, a White House spokesman, said an exception would be made for Mrs. Boyer. He said there is no written policy prioritizing who gets White House tours, and ‘we try to accommodate as many visitors to the White House as possible.’” The exception to which Mr. Conant referred was the four-month wait for scheduled tours. You see, Sandy Boyer told the AP her mother requested the scheduled tour less than two weeks in advance. Funny how Mr. Prose and the editorial failed to note this, isn’t it?

“Any number of words spring to mind to describe this policy- mean-spirited, mind-boggling, outrageous, dumbfounding - but the one that really fits is insulting, not only to the Boyers and Vietnam veterans but to any family that has lost a son or daughter in combat.

“The decision to deny the Boyers a tour of the White House was probably made by a low-level bureaucrat or political appointee. But the Iraq/Afghanistan-only policy could not have been made by some flunky. Someone higher up had to be responsible for implementing it.

“This is not an aberration. It’s business as usual in this administration’s cynical manipulation of the tools and symbols of power to achieve its own ends.

“Boyer and her daughters got their tour, but only after Altmire used his status as a member of Congress to schedule his own tour of the White House, accompanied by the three women.”

[RWC] This isn’t true according to the AP article. The AP wrote, “As a member of Congress, Altmire is allowed to appear in person to put people in line, and he said he would do so on Thursday [June 28^th] for Mrs. Boyer and her two daughters.” In other words, the Boyers showed up for the regular unscheduled tours and Mr. Altmire simply showed up to put the Boyers at the head of the line. That was nice of Mr. Altmire, but the editorial’s description of events appears to be inaccurate.

“That it ever had to come to that is a disgrace and an insult.”

[RWC] Based on the AP story, this editorial “is a disgrace and an insult.” That said, who knows which version of events is more accurate? After all, the AP isn’t a bastion of accuracy itself.