Nobles and knaves

Nobles: Jeff Fisher, for diving into the waters of Puget Sound to retrieve his retriever — rather, his labrador.

Even at this time of year, the waters in the Pacific Northwest are frigid. On a ferry ride from Bremerton, Wash., to Seattle, Mr. Fisher and his wife, Samantha, stepped out of their car to take their labrador, Ruben, for a walk on the deck.

It seems that Ruben was more interested in swimming, however. While Mr. Fisher was talking with some other passengers, Ruben suddenly decided to take a dip.

“A guy said, ‘Your dog just jumped overboard!’ ” Mr. Fisher recalled, according to the Associated Press.

Perhaps relying on some of his old lifeguarding techniques, Mr. Fisher acted instantly. Grabbing a buoy on deck, Mr. Fisher dove into the icy water and paddled after Ruben.

“It was really hard to see in those big waves,” Mr. Fisher said. No doubt. A few bone-numbing moments later, Mr. Fisher, Ruben in hand, was picked up by a life raft and reunited with his wife on deck.

For proving that man is indeed a dog’s best friend, Mr. Fisher is the Noble of the week.

Knaves: “Major” news outlets, for displaying a dishonorable degree of bias in covering the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

According to allegations made by members of the group, John Kerry not only lied about many of his combat experiences in Vietnam, but he engaged in a campaign of self-promotion to win medals and glory, all at the expense of the truth and his fellow sailors. Of course if you aren’t a reader of this paper or a handful of Web logs, you might have missed this.

According to the Media Research Center, the major TV networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — have collectively aired just nine stories about the “swiftees” charges as of this writing, and nearly all covered ad hominem attacks to discredit the accusers. Conversely, the same networks devoted 75 stories questioning President Bush’s National Guard service. As the media center calculates, that’s an eight-to-one disparity.

In print, the “major” outlets haven’t performed any better. The Washington Post finally covered the story on Thursday, though the report was a blatant attempt to discredit one of the “swiftees.” The New York Times gave huge space to SBVT on its front page on Friday — but only to “reveal” all the connections linking the veterans to the Republican party. Not too long ago, the same papers, along with dozens of other major dailies, devoted thousands of inches of print space to Mr. Bush’s National Guard service.

Perhaps the allegations, chronicled in “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” will be proven false. Yet charges that have the backing of 264 veterans, as compared to the 13 veterans in Mr. Kerry’s “band of brothers,” are a story that deserves investigation.

For proving — once again — that liberal bias pervades the mainstream media, “major” news outlets are the Knaves of the week.

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