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→SBVT television advertisements: hunting for dead link connection
One of the SBVT told the ''New York Times'' that it would be spending $500,000 on the advertisement but declined to comment on how long it would remain on the air. "A Kerry aide said the buy was far smaller, $156,000 in seven smallish markets like Green Bay, Wis., and Toledo, Ohio, suggesting it was a 'vanity buy' intended to attract news coverage," the ''Times'' [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?ex=1250740800&en=7bf4b2f25a4c8daf&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland reported].
The SBVT television advertisements were produced by the Alexandria, Virginia-based [[Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm]] (SRCP). SRCP worked for Senator [[John McCain]] in 2000 and [[George H.W. Bush]] in 1988. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?ex=10940053341250740800&en=7bf4b2f25a4c8daf&ei=15090&enpartner=729916e83be2ab35rssuserland]
If the aim was to gain more free airtime coverage than paid advertising time, the strategy was successful. While the SBVT ad and official statements by the group correctly claim only that the speakers "served with" Kerry, not that they were on the same boat, the distinction was lost on others. Only one of the members of SWVT was actually a crewmate of Kerry.
The advertisement omitted the beginning of Kerry's sentence, which referred to what had been said by veterans themselves at a meeting in Detroit as part of the [[Winter Soldier Investigation]]. The transcript of Kerry's evidence included him telling the committee that at the Detroit meeting "many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia" and relived the "absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do."
"They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country," Kerry said. [http://web.archive.org/web/20000706200626/http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/j_kerry_s.html][http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/20/kerry.swiftboat/]
On its website, the SBVT sidesteps addressing what were specific statements of veterans, instead portraying Kerry's comments as being against all Veterans. "For more than thirty years, most Vietnam veterans kept silent as we were maligned as misfits, addicts, and baby killers. Now that a key creator of that poisonous image is seeking the Presidency we have resolved to end our silence." [http://web.archive.org/web/20040826082445/http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/index.php]
As the coverage of the SBVT claims became more widespread, Kerry's campaign was forced to respond. Speaking at a firefighters convention in Boston, Kerry criticized George W. Bush for not publicly distancing himself from the campaign. "The fact that the President won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything that you need to know--he wants them to do his dirty work ... The president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a [[Republican Party|Republican]]-funded attack group does just that," Kerry said. --[http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AFdead link]
Defenders of SBVT's campaign have argued that their activities are similar to those of a number of [[527 committee]]s, like [[MoveOn.org]], which campaigned against Bush.
