Home > Carlton Sherwood said Dems ’gleeful’ over US casualties in Iraq, in Nov 2003

Carlton Sherwood said Dems ’gleeful’ over US casualties in Iraq, in Nov 2003

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 13 October 2004
11 comments

Wars and conflicts International

Here’s some fresh background on Carlton Sherwood. He’s the producer of ’Stolen Honor’, the documentary attacking John Kerry which is due to get an airing on the 62 TV stations owned by Bush-friendly media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group - just a few days before the election.

Not a lot of people know this:

* Sherwood had a post in the Reagan administration.
* In Nov 2003, Sherwood said in a radio program that Democratic presidential primary candidates were ’carping gleefully’ about US military deaths in Iraq.
* On the same radio program, the president of far-right pressure group Judicial Watch described Sherwood as having advised President Bush.

Details:

1. According to the bio on the website of his mercenary shop, the WVC3 Group, Carlton Sherwood "served as Special Media Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration".

Who was the Secretary of the Navy? Why, of course, it was James Webb,
who now sits on WVC3’s advisory board.

See http://www.wvc3.com/whoweare_seniormanagement.cfm
and http://www.wvc3.com/whoweare_advisoryboard.cfm

2. On 8th Nov 2003, Sherwood appeared on the frankly barking Judicial Watch Report Radio Show. It is hosted by Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, who spends much of the show indulging in paranoid right-wing rants. You can download that show (as an 80MB sound file) from:

http://www.judicialwatchreport.org/radio/110803.ram
or
mms://www.judicialwatchreport.org/radio/110803.rm

Sherwood had just got back from Iraq and was invited onto the show to talk (over the telephone) about the worsening security situation. There are two points of interest here:

a) At 2m 10s into the show, Sherwood is introduced by the host. In addition to the standard biog for Sherwood, Fitton says "he’s advised the President Bush" [sic]. Of course, Fitton could just have been wrong. I’m not clear if Sherwood was even on the line at that point.

b) At 42m 12s into the show, Carlton Sherwood says this about US military casualties
in Iraq:

"Every time I get up in the morning and I turn on the cable news and I see that one or two more of our soldiers have been killed it’s like a kick in the guts to me, personally. But it’s also a double whammy because I know what soundbite’s going to follow that. And you’re right. It’ll be some wannabe - a Presidential wannabe, or one of their aides, carping, almost gleefully, using your word, almost gleefully that, uh, this is one more evidence of a failure."

Which does not exactly square with Sherwood’s claims of political independence: "I’m a political independent and always have been... This is not political, it is deeply personal."
(from http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1675&dept_id=18171&newsid=12894483&PAG=461&rfi=9 )

Forum posts

  • This is a perfect opportunity to do a "Republican" critic of the film "Stolen Honor", don’t actually see it just tell everyone I know it is all lies, full of baltant inaccuracies, not a word of truth....like the Republipukes do when they talk about Farenheit 9/11...."It is all lies", but we have never seen it.

    • "This is a perfect opportuinty to do a "Republican" critic [I’ll assume "critique"?] of the film...":

      Funny thing... amid all your sarcasm you are absolutely correct. There are already people saying that "Stolen Honor" is unfit to be shown on television before they have even had the opportunity to see it. Now, I’ll go out on a limb and say that I have doubts about the factual nature of "Stolen Honor" because of its source, but the same goes for Farenheit 9/11. There were actually inaccuracies and omissions in F9/11 that were pretty unfair, such as the implication that Bush met with members of Al Qaeda while he was governor of Texas, even though 1) he didn’t, and 2) those Al Qaeda members were invited by the Clinton administration. Even though F9/11 wasn’t "all lies," it wasn’t all true either.

      Whenever I point this out to anyone they tell me that F9/11 is free speech, and that republicans could make their own movie. Well, now they have and democrats are already trying to have it pulled off the air. It’s times like these that I love being neither rep. nor dem. I find that it’s inherently easier to criticise both sides than to defend either. (I can sleep better at night too.)

    • Hey, that’s whats it’s all about, isn’t it? Free speech? There were many innaccuracies in F9/11 as there is in telling 18 year olds the draft is coming back if they vote for Bush. If someone doesn’t want to watch it all they have to do is change the channell. Now that’s not hard is it? Believe me, if Michael Moore could do what Sinclair is doing, he would damn well do it. I think its’ hysterical that when the left is doing it, it’s free speech, their rights. When the right does it, it’s just NOT FAIR! WAH WAH WAH. Give me a break, you all sound like babies.

    • I have seen the movie. Have you? Unlike they people crying "wah", before I comment on something, I make sure I can make an infomed opinion about it.

      It claims that the testimony of the "Winter Soldiers" was fraudulent, and that Kerry knew it and used it anyway. They claim that Kerry is guilty of treason for having perpetuated this "lie" about atrocities in Vietnam. They claim that by whipping up opposition to the war, he prolonged the war and contributed to the suffering of POWs.

      Now go read up on the Pulitzer Prize winning series on the Tiger Force in Vietnam. Hundreds of atrocities committed by just one commando unit. With the army documents to prove it. And these guys were never prosecuted. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE

      These atrocities happened. Deal with it. Kerry never claimed that everyone did it. He just said that they were occuring, because soldiers were being left in a situation conducive for the breakdown of order. He blames the higher-ups for the situation, not the soldiers. And it is happening again in Iraq.

      So if you really support the troops, go educate yourself. Freedom is won by an informed mind.

    • The issue is not Moore’s movie, or its inaccuracies. The issue is that Sinclair is using a public trust to provide free air time for Bush’s campaign, whichi is blatant malfeasance of FCC licensing. They originally listed the program as news, and have coerced their affiliates to air the program. Sinclair is not providing a foram for free speech but this is paid campaign broardcasting. Moore produced a movie that people had to pay to enter. Sinclair is using false pretenses to exploit a public trust to front its political agenda. There are strict rules on how broadcasters can use the public airwaves and Sinclair is in violation, and their stockprice is plumitting, which means they are now abusing the trust of their shareholders.

      Free speech is not using the public airwaves under false pretenses. Get your fact correct.

  • Disinfopedia resources for Carlton Sherwood and his movie:

    Carlton Sherwood profile

    Profile of the Stolen Honor movie

  • I was in Viet Nam from 1970 - 1972. I saw a lot of the things John Kerry QUOTED from others, like me, as having been committed by certain renegade GIs, which there were a lot more than people think. I tried to speak out about it but was threatened with even having "something happen" to my family when I got back if I said anything about what I saw. How Kerry got the guts to do it I don’t know. Bit what he said back then to congress was true—even though he was just quoting the words of other soldiers. When I see these TRULY DISHONORED POWs on the hateful lie-filled "documentary" "Stolen Honor" spewing out these horrific lies for political reasons, I can see in their nasty hateful eyes and voices those same snakes who did those arocities in front of me and threatened me and my family if I ever said anything.

  • Cut the crap sherwood is just a right wing flunky.

    Nothing wrong with that some has to dig the shit.

    You wouldn’t want genuine policy debate get in the way of democracy and making the world a safer place.

  • You say Sherwood had a post withhte Reagan adminstration - and your point is?

    Tim Russert had a post with Mario Cuomo

    BillMoyers had a post with the LBJ administration

    Chris Matthews had a post with the Carter administration

    George Stephanopoulos with teh Clinton adminstration