Kerry Supporters Bombard Reporters With Positive Spin

The first presidential debate had barely ended when the e-mails began arriving.

“Kerry was convincing and spoke intelligently about the problems facing this country,” wrote one correspondent.

“Kerry was strong, forthright and resolute,” wrote another.

Testaments to the Democratic candidate’s performance deluged the in-boxes of reporters and television correspondents around the country Thursday and Friday, all urging the media to view the debate as a Kerry victory.

The tactic was apparently conceived by Mark Perloe, a doctor in Atlanta, who sent out his own e-mail Wednesday urging supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry to “bombard major networks with our opinions.”

News executives said that although the flood of e-mails garnered attention, they didn’t affect coverage.

“Sometimes e-mail is useful when it alerts you to a story people feel strongly about,” said Bruce Drake, the vice president for news at National Public Radio, who himself received 200 pro-Kerry e-mails. “But in the context of the debate, when it was so clearly orchestrated, it really doesn’t tell us anything.”

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A Swift Simulation

A company that makes Internet video games about real-life combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan is coming out with one from the war in Vietnam, allowing players to step into the boots of Lt. j.g. John F. Kerry and pilot a Swift boat through the waters of a virtual Mekong Delta.

“What we’re trying to do is bring some clarity to the discussion [of Kerry’s service] and help ordinary people understand the situation that underlies the controversy” over Kerry’s record, said Keith Halper, chief executive of Kuma Reality Games, which developed the simulation.

Partisan groups like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have accused Kerry of exaggerating his service record; a loyal band of Kerry’s crewman and gunboat officers have praised his performance in battle.

The game uses naval records and the account of an independent Swift boat veteran, who did not serve with Kerry, to help re-create PCF-94’s Feb. 28, 1969, encounter with the Viet Cong. Kerry was awarded the Silver Star for what he did that day.

Players can try out the game at kumawar.com starting Friday. A one-week trial is free, and continued access costs $9.99 a month.

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What’s Good for Business

The chief executive of entertainment giant Viacom Inc., a self-described “liberal Democrat,” has thrown his support behind President Bush.

Sumner Redstone announced his intentions Friday at Forbes magazine’s Global CEO Conference in Hong Kong.

“I vote for what’s good for Viacom,” the Wall Street Journal reported Redstone as saying. “I don’t want to denigrate Kerry, but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal.”

Redstone has donated thousands to the Democratic Party, and gave the maximum individual contribution of $2,000 to Sen. John F. Kerry this election cycle and to Al Gore in 2000.

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Duly Quoted

“No president ever wants to send young Americans into war. He has a heart. He is human.” -- George P. Bush on his uncle, the president.

“We’ve returned to the scene of the crime: Florida.” -- Rev. Al Sharpton to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.

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Compiled from staff, Web and wire reports by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.