Did the media fall out of love with John Kerry?

Instapundit connects my "lame" post from yesterday to this post from Captain's Quarters that I was halfway through writing a post about last night before I became overwhelmed with pity for John Kerry and deleted my draft. CQ writes:

After waiting weeks for the mainstream news media to cover the collapse of John Kerry's narrative on Viet Nam, and waiting out the media attack on the testimony of over 200 combat veterans, two bellwether media outlets have suddenly reversed themselves and reported on Kerry's lies and prevarications in their news sections ...



I expected the media to eventually get closer to the truth on the Swiftvet group and John O'Neill, although I never expected the Los Angeles Times to take the lead in doing so. I am stunned that the Post has, after six months of silence, started reporting on the Phoenix Project. It signals the end of the media's honeymoon with John Kerry and serves as a call for open season on the Democrat's campaign narratives.

So what happened? Did the media reach a tipping point in the last few days and, if so, why? Here's my theory.



The media are looking ahead and imagining how the history of the 2004 presidential campaign will read and how their performance will measure up. The first chapter of that history was the Howard Dean story, and the mainstream media brimmed with stories about the wonderful Howard Dean, explaining why he had all the magic. Then, they looked at bit silly when he deflated, and they quickly shifted to shining their light on Kerry as the candidate who would come out on top, and that light even influenced the voters to select him--he's such a winner--now that they had to slough off Howard Dean. So Kerry rolled into the nomination, and the media were prepared to keep a steady flattering light on him until he ascended into the presidency in November. They thought the Kerry ascendancy would be chapter two of the history of the 2004 election, and they thought they were looking good and getting the story right.



But what if chapter two was the story of Kerry making Vietnam the centerpiece of his candidacy setting off an out-of-nowhere takedown by a bunch of veterans who have been pissed off at him for 35 years? No, no way could that be the story! We aren't going to talk about that. No, no… wait a minute. Check out these polls! The ads are making an impression. The ads are seriously wounding Kerry. This looks like the turning point of the whole campaign, and it seems that from here Kerry will fall into defeat. This is chapter 2 of the history of the 2004 election, and we are going to look ridiculous if we aren't actively involved in telling the story of what happened in the 2004 election. Time to pile on John Kerry! Our interests have now officially diverged.



UPDATE: Will Collier at Vodkapundit responds, speculating that, in the end, the media will write the history in terms of the "low-down, dirty, nasty, meaner-than-we-are Republican[s]."