Here’s what Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at U. Penn. had to say in response the John Kerry’s comments in Pasadena on Monday (emphasis added):
“It happens to people who give lots of speeches _
you get tired, and you start to abbreviate. It
wouldn’t be like Kerry to criticize the troops ? it’s perfectly
plausible that he was trying to joke about Bush.”
Keep in mind, this is one of the most prominent journalism educators in America. She is called upon often to comment wisely (you can’t win them all, I guess) on issues of media and journalism. The ivory towers at Penn must be hermetically sealed if she thinks it would be unusual for John Kerry to criticize American military personnel.
I think it should be required of major journalism educators that they occasionally read a newspaper, watch a little TV news or read a blog now and then.