Swift Boat Coverage: Hurting Bush?

More swift boat coverage on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer: "Kwame Holman examines the debate about John Kerry’s actions during and after the Vietnam War, and the impact that they are having on the presidential campaign. Gwen Ifill follows up in a discussion with David Gergen, an advisor to four presidents, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania."

From David Gergen:

"I think that there is a very strong danger here for the White House that a lot of voters will conclude -- because, of course, the evidence is coming out in the print press is there's very little... there isn't anything to support these allegations in this first ad. And that the ad looks more like a smear.

"Now the danger for the president is if people conclude this was a below-the-belt tactic that was intended to smear John Kerry and that it plays into a pattern of going after John McCain in 2000 and going after Max Cleland in 2002, that may well backfire on the White House, and that's the danger that they face. Short term they've got a gain. Long term they could pay a price."

From Kathleen Hall Jamieson:

"...now the tables are starting to turn. When the Washington Post did the first investigative piece, found evidence that some of those claims aren't true, the New York Times then came into play, journalism, largely print, has been moving forward fairly aggressively to check these claims against the documentary evidence, and Kerry's case has been built substantially as a result. That helps turn the news agenda to benefit Kerry."