John Moltz

Sent to letters@nytimes.com

David Halbfinger's report of John Kerry's vacation ("Amid Natural Splendor in Idaho, a Weary Kerry Gets Away From It All" - 3/19/2004) does indeed tell volumes, but not about the Senator.

Halbfinger doesn't even get through the lede before he describes Kerry as "...the candidate often ridiculed as straddling both sides of political divides..."

Ridiculed by whom? Halbfinger leaves out that Kerry is ridiculed exclusively by Republicans because the insinuation that he is widely ridiculed is so much more pleasing and supports the trite anecdote he provides that is supposed to speak volumes about the man.

He then calls Kerry "The image-conscious candidate..."

Phony, phony, phony, he cries. "As opposed to what?" one might reasonably ask. A president who trapses about in a flight suit and does all that brush-clearing in Crawford? A president who describes himself as a "war president" and a "compassionate conservative," while admitting in private he doesn't understand poor people?

Halbfinger then notes "Kerry beat a retreat back into the lodge..." after being heckled by a skier. It's convenient for President Bush that he never lets himself get into a situation where he might get heckled. His crowds are always hand-picked and recently some of them don't even speak English.

This article makes me very sad. It makes me very sad at the state of journalism at the New York Times - that it has learned nothing from the irresponsible coverage of Al Gore during the 2000 campaign and that it continues to treat the country's most important business with the seriousness of a group of high school Heathers who spin oh-so-delicious tales that are ultimately made of whole cloth.

That apparently doesn't matter to your publication and Halbfinger, though. This tale is not designed to inform, it's designed to cast the journal and the journalist as those that don't cotton to Washington "phonies." After spinning George Bush as "the real man" for so long, Halbfinger and the Times can't turn back now, and you can't have two "real men" so Kerry must be the phony, just like Gore supposedly was before him.

Will we be forced to endure eight months of articles about Kerry's suits and sweaters, as if they make a bit of difference to the governing of a nation?

That is what makes me sad. If there's a real story here, it's about shallow journalists who attempt to make characterizations of politicians for their own convenience, spin tales that are fabricated, but at least don't require them to think hard, and care not at all about the serious business at hand.

Well, someone please tell David Halbfinger to stop. Because I've heard this one before.

Sincerely,
John Moltz