On October 11, the independent anti-Bush group Texans for Truth released the book Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush (ReganBooks, a Harper Collins imprint), written by the group's executive director, Glenn W. Smith. The book addresses Bush's military career and the Bush administration's efforts to defuse the controversy over his National Guard Service; it's a rejoinder to the anti-Kerry book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (Regnery), co-written by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth co-founder John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi, released on August 15 by Regnery Publishing.

Media Matters for America has extensively refuted false claims made in Unfit for Command and by its co-authors. Yet while the attacks on Kerry in Unfit for Command and by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now known as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth) were heavily reported in print and TV outlets, the release of Unfit Commander has been largely ignored by the media.

During the two-day period of October 11 and October 12, only The Washington Post (in Richard Leiby's October 12 “Reliable Source” column and right-wing news site Human Events (in an October 11 article titled “ReganBooks Rips Off Regnery”) reported the release of Unfit Commander. (Human Events is owned by Eagle Publishing, Inc., also the owner of Regnery Publishing, Inc., publisher of Unfit for Command.) In stark contrast, during a comparable two-day period (August 15 and August 16), a MMFA Nexis search of “U.S. Newspapers and Wires” found 18 articles, editorials, and op-eds that discussed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the contents of Unfit for Command.

Smith and O'Neill appeared together as guests on the October 11 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country. O'Neill was also interviewed on the August 16 edition of the same show, the day after Unfit for Command was released. Additional attention was given to Unfit for Command by FOX News Channel managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume. Hume praised the book on the August 15 edition of FOX Broadcasting Company's FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace; on FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume on August 16, Hume claimed that “except for FOX News here, no major news organization has reported on the specifics of the book.”

But as MMFA noted at the time, O'Neill stated his allegations against Kerry directly during several appearances on cable news networks in the weeks leading up to Unfit for Command's release. By the time of the book's release, MMFA had already documented many of O'Neill's demonstrably false allegations, which went unchallenged during his appearances on Scarborough Country and CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports. In addition to those appearances, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC had all run stories reporting on the allegations by O'Neill and his group prior to Unfit for Command's release.

An MMFA Nexis search of the “Transcripts” database for Unfit Commander found no other news programs that mentioned the release of the book.