Twilight of the idol

News of the implosion of John Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia story — a story to which Kerry himself has attributed life-altering signficance — has yet to see the light of day in the mainstream media. The story peeked through the cloud cover in Kathleen Antrim’s San Francisco Examiner column on Friday (“Backlash of Kerry claims”) and Dave Kopel’s Rocky Mountain News column on Saturday (“Kerry’s Cambodia troubles ignored”).
Yesterday the clouds also parted slightly on the news — rather than the opinion — page of a newspaper. Scott Canon of the Kansas City Star broke the cloud cover in a news story (registration required): “Kerry’s Cambodia links questioned.” (Thanks to Hugh Hewitt for the tip.)
Canon’s story covers familiar territory. He takes note of Douglas Brinkley’s authorized hagiography of Kerry (Tour of Duty), although he does not expressly observe how it belies Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia fabrication. Cannon also seems to have lacked access to a map that might have shed light on the dissembling of recent Kerry campaign statements. Nevertheless, his story is a bona fide effort, prompting Hugh to ask: “Is the dam beginning to break?”
I think the answer is “no,” but we shall see. Today’s Boston Globe, for example, adds a little more cover in “Top Bush supporter funds attacks on Kerry’s war record.”
While we wait for the sun to shine on this story, Hugh directs us to this readable scan of Kerry’s Boston Herald review of “Apocalyse Now.” (Click here for the link to the Instapundit shot of Kerry’s 1986 reference on the floor of the Senate to his searing Christmas in Cambodia. Click here for our report on Laura Blumenfeld’s June 1, 2003 Washington Post profile of Kerry with his most recent statement of the Christmas in Cambodia story, including the secret agent man and the magic hat.)
Kerry not only invokes his “Christmas in Cambodia” story in the review, he criticizes the film for insufficient realism when measured against his experience of Vietnam: “Coppola’s vision of Vietnam is pure fantasy.” Well, the ironies abound. The media bigfeet who refuse to take notice deprive us of insight and, perhaps, a laugh. Over at the American Thinker Thomas Lifson denominates the media non-performance on this story “Twilight of the press gods.”
Lifson alludes to the Wagnerian opera; I wonder if Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols might provide a more appropriate reference. Chapter 4 of Nietzsche’s Twilight is “How the ‘Real World’ At Last Became a Myth” or “How the ‘True World’ Finally Becomes a Fable.” On that topic, John Kerry and friends are teaching us a thing or two.