Reuters says Bush has called for Swift Boat ads to stop - I don't think that's what he actually said

Reuters is trying to spin this as though Bush has demanded the Swift Boat ads be pulled of the air. What in fact Bush said is what his staff has been saying for a while - they want ALL third-party ads stopped. Why? Because the Dems have a hell of a lot more third party - i.e., 527 - money than the Republicans. Today's comment by Bush is a far cry from Reuters' spin, which is making it sound as though Bush is now the champion of fairness by calling for the nasty lie of an ad against Kerry to stop. He didn't really say that. He said he wanted all the ads off the air, regardless of content. Thus Bush's problem isn't with the content of the anti-Kerry ad, it's with who's funding it. That's a campaign finance reason for objecting to the ad and NOT an ethical or moral reason. So what Bush said today wasn't new, and it wasn't really a demand for the bad guys to pull the bad ad.

Just to wrap up - Kerry said the other day that he was unequivocally opposed to the MoveOn ads attacking Bush's military record (or lack thereof). Bush has not categorically opposed the Swift Boat ads - his opposition is conditional, i.e., only if ALL the ads are pulled by each side. Yes it's nuanced, but life is nuanced. Our media is smarter than this.

UPDATE: Well that didn't take long. This from tomorrow's NYT: "the White House quickly moved to insist that Mr. Bush had not meant in any way to single out the advertisement run by veterans opposed to Mr. Kerry." Yes, God forbid Mr. Bush's words actually get that ad off the air.