Shill

Has anyone ever trashed his reputation as a journalist more thoroughly than Robert Novak? It turns out that his son is the publicist for Regnery, publisher of Unfit For Command, but that was information Novak didn’t find relevant enough to mention when he scored an exclusive interview with the ghostly Admiral Schachte — you know, the guy who nobody remembers being the fourth guy in a three man crew on the day Kerry got wounded?

Novak’s son is the publicist for the publisher of a controversial book and Novak writes a fawning and unskeptical interview with one of the prime sources and Novak relies on his sterling reputation as a journalist to cover himself. Except, of course, his reputation as a journalist is in tatters.

But, Al Hunt seemed to think that there was even more to the story. He pretty much called Novak an outright liar on CNN over the week-end and it’s pretty clear he is right. The two guys besides Kerry on that skimmer, Zaladonis and Runyan, have told everyone the exact same story. They don’t remember Schachte ever being on that boat and they remember being under fire. It is only to Bob Novak that they are supposed to have said that there was no fire.

NOVAK: I interviewed Admiral Schachte this week. He is a former deputy judge advocate general of the Navy, a very distinguished man. He said he was definitely in the boat that night. John Kerry says he wasn’t in the boat. I believe Admiral Schachte. I checked with a couple of other officers who were there at that time. They say it is inconceivable that on his maiden mission, Lieutenant Kerry would have been sent off in that boat alone, that this — using this Boston whaler or skimmer was Lieutenant Schachte’s own idea. He was in all the missions on the Boston whaler, and I — and he is — and the idea that Kerry said nobody who was ever on a boat on him was ever critical of him is wrong because I believe Schachte was there.

SHIELDS: Yet the enlisted man who was on the boat, and everybody agrees was on the boat, says he wasn’t on the boat.

Al Hunt?

HUNT: Well, Mark, let’s leave John Kerry and let’s leave Schachte aside for a minute. I talked to those two enlisted men today. I talked to Pat Runyon and Bill Zaladonis. They both were on that boat December 2, 1968. They say there is no way that the admiral could have been on that boat. And they describe in vivid detail that night. They say it was a small, 14-foot boat with an outboard motor, that, in fact, with their weapons and other material, that four people would have been a really, really tight fit. They took orders from John Kerry. They remember — Zaladonis remembers Kerry saying, Shoot over here, rather than over here, when they were in a firefight. And Runyon remembers him telling him to, Start the boat. Let’s get the hell out of here. Zaladonis remembers when Kerry was hit, and they just say it’s absolutely impossible to — you wouldn’t have had two officers on a little boat like that on that kind of a mission.

Moreover, Schachte has changed his story. A year ago, he talked to Michael Kranish of “The Boston Globe,” and he said that there was a firefight. He didn’t say he was in the boat. He said Kerry was hit — quote, “hit” — though it wasn’t very serious. Now he says there wasn’t a firefight and it was a self-inflicted wound. Moreover, he went and he said that he — when he saw Kerry 20 years later in Washington, he was with a top aide with — of Fritz (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Ashley Thripp (ph). Ashley Thripp I talked to today and said, No way. I wasn’t there.

So I think that — I think the admiral is either mistaken or he’s lying.

[…]

NOVAK: Let me stick to this — this Schachte thing for just — just a moment. In the first place, I also interviewed those two guys, Runyon and Zaladoris (SIC), and they both said they both doubted there was any enemy fire. I don’t know if you didn’t ask them that question. But they told me they didn’t believe there was any enemy fire. That — that’s just a factual thing.

No. 2, I really do believe that — I’ve talked to other officers, and they say that this Boston whaler, this skimmer, usually had — almost always had two officers in it. Only has room for three, right. They usually had two officers and an enlisted man in the back. So there was a — I think these two men are probably good men. I think they’re the ones that are confused.

[…]

HUNT: Bob invoked my name and said I — you know, didn’t know if I asked them — I did ask them the question. They both very clearly say there was a firefight. They describe it in detail. They describe firing at people that night. And Zaladonis — by the way, you have his name wrong. His name is Zaladonis, Bob. You know, if you called him, you ought to get his name right — describes when Kerry was hit. They both say that, Mark, and I challenge anyone to call them, and they’ll tell him.

NOVAK: They both — they both told me they didn’t believe there was any fire coming from the enemy on that boat.

HUNT: And they also told…

NOVAK: Now, maybe they’ve changed their story!

Novak, like so many Republicans in this era, has completely lost his honor both as a journalist and a citizen. This man is not a journalist, he is a GOP propagandist and should not be afforded the same kind of shield offered to real journalists in protecting their sources. The profession should shun this guy. By allowing him to evoke that shield in the Plame case, they are likely to lose it all together.