News-Record.com

I think a lot of the blame, especially where Lynch is concerned, lies with a media ignorant about the military/warfighting/firearms and prone to repeat "breaking news" which turns out to be just the latest rumor. The Lynch story built and built and built upon itself while military bloggers and forum members shook their collective heads at the gross ignorance of the media.
I actually heard a major news anchor yesterday reporting "Breaking News" (about a hand grenade at a school) admit she didn't know how a grenade worked or whether "inert" meant it was a danger or not. She was handed script to read and she read it. That was refreshing to me.
Having sat in on a few news conferences and being interviewed numerous times myself I was always awed by the ignorance of the reporters on the subject they were asking questions about. Made most of us shake our heads and wonder how they ever get anything right without even a basic understanding of the subject.

I forgot to add something to my above comment.
SecDef Donald Rumsfeld made this statement during a daily news conference one day while I was watching. He was asked to confirm or deny some wild news story about an event and he answered, "The media is more interesting in getting it first than in getting it right."
Never take "breaking news" as gospel and assume it has all the facts. Wait a while until the facts are in before you make judgements.
When the VaTech shooting occurred I'd have been happy to have no news about it for the next 3-4 days until the facts were sorted out and presented in a logical fashion. The intervening days were filled with news stories rife with rumors, suppositions, theories, egos, and deliberate misinformation.

Jaycee:
I think it's pretty hard to hang these cases on the media. The military willingly fabricated stories and then followed with cover-ups.

Allen: "We are better than that."

"We the people" are better than that (although "we" love a good story). "We," the government truth-fabricators, are not better than that, whatever "that" is, perhaps the telling of the truth?

The media was eager to bring war-heroics to readers and viewers who lap up that stuff (I'm one of them) and used what was supplied as 'newspeak' that was approved by, written by, organized by, and promulgated by the government which, sadly, no longer represents "we" the people.

We are outsiders to our own culture.

Yes, you'd like to believe that, wouldn't you?
We see it time and time again...we say it yesterday with the bogus "Live Grenade At School" case. A story starts, halfwit reporters with $200 haircuts mob anyone in the area, rumors are told, repeated, and take on factual proportions.
In the grenade story, one network anchor made the horrific announcement that it was a "live" grenade (later proved false) with THE PIN STILL IN IT!!!! Another ignorant statement, as the pin is part of the safety device. So the story was repeated in other networks, ad nauseaum, "Live Grenade WITH THE PIN STILL IN IT!!!"
Of course, it was not a live grenade, no danger, never was, pin didn't make a difference, nobody hurt, but by golly those news anchors made sure everybody knew THE PIN IS STILL IN IT!!!
In the beginning, there were many stories about Lynch and Tillman told by reporters with no facts, and many of these took on a life of their own. The military is no different than anyone else when it comes to watching the news.
Military people on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan watch the news, too, and sometimes reporters in those places hear rumors repeated to them by soldiers who saw the rumor on the news and...viola!...we have a FACT.
With the 24/7 coverage of the VaTech shooting we still didn't get to see something...the banners at VaTech begging the news media to go the hell away and leave them alone! We didn't see the many parents who confronted nitwit reporters with $200 haircuts and half a clue and demanded the reporters leave their children alone!
Just because you want to blame everything on someone else, Allen, does not relieve the news institution from liability for their horribly inaccurate coverage of nearly every major news event. The news media most often compounds tragedy, brings us the latest-breaking hottest mis-information, and generally adds an unnecessarily distracting dimension to any event. Reporters get in the way, drain resources from understaffed police/rescue/military units, and would be better served waiting for the facts to be know rather than splashing the latest rumor on the front page.
But, I understand, I truly do. If it bleeds, it leads. Firstest with the mostest. Scoop your competition. Sell more ads.
But that doesn't make up for the disservice done by news reporters to us all.

I know referring to the French is hardly de rigeur these days, but the theorist Baudrillard wrote years ago about the age of "simulacra": that all of Western culture has become increasingly a mere "copy", a fakery, and that modern consumers actually prefer such an "almost" reality, a virtual reality, to the no-longer definiable "Truth" with a capital "T".

Happily, there remain a stellar few stories like that of the man jumping under the subway, to shock us back into a reality we can't scarcely belive still exists. Ditto for the Holocaust survivor/professor last week who sacrificed himself at VT.

Well-said, Jim.
Jaycee: I'm not saying media aren't culpable. You should have heard an interesting rebroadcast of a David Halberstam interview yesterday in which he recounted his days covering Vietnam, and the pressure he got from U.S. and South Vietnamese military officials to be a "team player" in covering the war.
He refused. Other reporters did not.
But what about the military's role in cover-ups -- as in the threats to Tillman's fellow soldier not to say what really happened?

Allen give it up. Jaycee has an ax to grind with the media (though it sounds like he's swinging at print media when broadcast media seems to be who he has the issue with).

Allen, I just think it's laughable to believe that the only information journalists use for their stories is what the government gives them. Often, official government info that comes out some time after an event is merely a footnote to the slanted position the media has already taken. Reporters were on the Lynch story from the second it became public; they descended on W. Virginia like rednceks to a Democrat Robert K. Byrd KKK rally offering free beer. They interviewed soldiers, school chums, ad infinitum before any official word came out. I believe they were looking for the "hook" to make a story great whether they had the facts or not. The "official" version from the government came long after the media had "made" Lynch into whatever they wanted.
I am disturbed by some of the backstory events in the Tillman case. However, I also understand that the military is an entity that does not operate like the rest of society. Sad, but true.
write4food, I do have an axe to grind. It has to do with the lack of facts in favor of opinions in news reporting. I prefer to see the facts and form my own opinions based on them. I abhor slanted news that starts with a premise and uses info to support a biased position. And too often the print media merely regurgitates what's already been on the 24/7 broadcast media, be it accurate or not.
OK, rant mode off. I got long-winded this morning and will try to back it down a few notches. :)

Jaycee:
Short of being there, it is particularly hard in a case like Tillman's death to get to the truth.
As I recall, questions about the Lynch narrative unraveled pretty early and The Washington Post played a significant role in that.

We are better than that? Tell that to the young Duke men.

Well, these are the kinds of myths that serve the needs of a totalitarian state. Blind patriotism can't exist without such myths. Here's a real interesting take on how we are being marched into dictatorship:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/24/708/

(If link doesn't work, copy-paste both lines into your browser.)

It is appropriate to report on the comments from Jessica Lynch about the hyping of events of our capture by the military. This has been well-reported in the media, obviously, because it makes for good press and serves an anti-war and anit-bush agenda just fine. But, what hasn't been publicized, nor really even published, is the full text of her comments. The reason for that is likely that it doesn't serve the agenda of the media so well. I had heard her actual comments on the air, but try finding the full text in the media, including the News-Record. It is important that Ms. Lynch wanted the truth told, but didn't want it to be politicized (which is exactly what has happened). What's possibly the most important segment of her testimony is the final remarks that says "My hero is every American who says, my country needs me and answers the call to fight." So, why aren't we publizing this statement, as well as the military's hype? Is it because that doesn't serve the anti-war, anti-Bush agenda?

Testimony of Jessica Lynch

Chairman Waxman, and distinguished members of the committee, it is an honor to be with you
today and I am grateful to have this opportunity.
I have been asked here today to address �misinformation from the battlefield.� Quite frankly, it is something that I have been doing since I returned from Iraq. However, I want to note for the record, I am not politically motivated in my appearance here today. I lived the war in Iraq. Today I have family and friends still serving in Iraq. My support for our troops is unwavering.

I believe this is not a time for finger pointing. It is time for the truth, the whole truth, versus
misinformation and hype. Because of the misinformation, people try to discount the realities of my story, including me as part of the hype. Nothing could be further from the truth. My experiences have caused a personal struggle of sorts for me. I was given opportunities not extended to my fellow soldiers � and embraced those opportunities set the record straight. It is something I have done since 2003 and something I imagine I will have to do for the rest of my life. I have answered criticisms for being paid to tell my story. Quite frankly, the injuries I have will last a lifetime and I had a story tell, a story
that needed to be told so people would know the truth.

I want to take a minute to remind the committee of my true story. I was a soldier. In July 2001, I enlisted in the Army with my brother. We had different reasons as to why we joined but we both wanted to serve our country. I loved my time in the Army and I am grateful for the opportunity to have served this nation during a time of crisis.
In 2003, I received word that my unit had been deployed. I was part of a 100-mile long convoy
going to Bagdad to support the Marines. I drove the 5-ton water buffalo truck. Our unit drove the
heaviest vehicles. The sand was thick -- our vehicles just sank. It would take us hours to travel the shortest distance. We decided to divide our convoy so the lighter vehicles could reach our target. But then came the city of An Nasiryah and a day I will never forget.

The truck I was driving broke down. I was picked up by my roommate and best friend, Lori Piestewa who was driving our First Sergeant Robert Dowdy. We also picked up two other soldiers from a different unit to get them out of harms way.
As we drove through An Nasiryah, trying to get turned around to try to leave the city, the signs of hostility were increasing with people with weapons on roof tops and the street watching our entire group.

The vehicle I was riding in was hit by a rocket propelled grenade and slammed into the back of
another truck in the convoy. Three people in the vehicle were killed upon impact. Lori and I were
taken to a hospital where she later died and I was held for nine days. In all eleven soldiers died
that day, six others from the unit, plus two others were taken prisoner.

Following the ambush, my injuries were extensive. When I awoke in the Iraqi hospital, I was not
able to move or feel anything below my waist. I suffered a six inch gash in my head. My fourth and
fifth lumbars were overlapping causing pressure on my spine. My right humerus bone was broken.
My right foot was crushed. My left femur was shattered. The Iraqis in the hospital tried to help me by removing the bone and replacing it with a metal rod. The rod they used was a model from the 1940s for a man and was too long. Following my rescue, the doctors in Landstuhl, Germany found
in a physical exam that I had been sexually assaulted. Today, I continue to deal with bladder,
bowel and kidney problems as a result of my injuries. My left leg still has no feeling from the knee down and I am required to wear a brace so that I can stand and walk.

When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move, or fight or call for help. The nurses at
the hospital tried to soothe me and tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to American troops.

Then on April 1, while various units created diversions around Nasiryah, a group came to the
hospital to rescue me. I could hear them speaking in English but I was still very afraid. Then a
soldier came into my room, he tore the American flag from his uniform and pressed into my hand
and he told me, �We�re American soldiers and we�re here to take you home.� As I held his hand, I
told him, �yes, I am an American soldier too.�
When I remember those difficult days, I remember the fear. I remember the strength. I remember
the hand of a fellow American soldier reassuring me that I was ok now.

At the same time, tales of great heroism were being told. My parent�s home in Wirt County was
under siege of the media all repeating the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went
down fighting.

It was not true. I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspire our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good. However, I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary. People like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy who picked up fellow soldiers in harms way. Or people like Patrick Miller and Sergeant Donald Walters who actually fought until the very end.

The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes and
they don�t need to be told elaborate tales. My hero is my brother Greg who continues to serve this country today. My hero is my friend Lori
who died in Iraq but set an example for a generation of Hopi and Native American women and little girls everywhere about the important contributions just one soldier can make in the fight for freedom. My hero is every American who says, my country needs me and answers the call to fight.

I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and I told the truth. Many other soldiers, like Pat Tillman, do not have the opportunity.
The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it always more heroic than the hype.

Stormy:
Thanks for the info. Still, I'm not seeing this as a political issue. It's a moral issue. And I'm still not grapsing the need to blame the media on this one. A lie is a lie is a lie.

"At the same time, tales of great heroism were being told. My parent�s home in Wirt County was under siege of the media all repeating the story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting.
It was not true. I have repeatedly said, when asked, that if the stories about me helped inspire our troops and rally a nation, then perhaps there was some good. However, I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary."

I believe the "tales" and "lies" to which Lynch refers were the ones largely invented by the news media. Initial "hero" reports cited "unnamed" official sources, and no further definitive word in that vein was ever heard again. And we know well the propensity of the news media to invent (lie) sources when they want to sensationalize a story. As I recall, at the time of the initial sensationalized news stories, the government had not yet released any offical version of the battle because Lynch had not yet been interviewed and the investigation was just beginning.

So, Jaycee, let me see if I understand: It's the media's fault that the military made up these stories?

Allen, you're again taking the tack that the press ONLY printed what the government told them. You know that to be false.
Gazillions of reporters pounced on W. Va. (as said by Lynch) and started putting out all kinds of garbage/quotes/interviews/witness accounts BEFORE the government even debriefed Lynch.
Most of the stories were entirely independent of anything the government said. The only early "quotes" from the "government" were from unnamed and unsubstantiated "officials" and are extremely suspect, as we know the media will invent/make up/lie about sources to sensationalize stories.
Please show me a news organization that published absolutely no stories on Lynch until after the release of an official government report, and then used only the government report as a source. You won't find one because that's not how the news organizations work. I'm surprised you don't know that, Allen.
Rumor upon rumor by hundreds of journalists perpetuate even more rumors. If a viewer sees it enough he begins to repeat it as a fact.
As I said before (and I've seen it) guys on the ground in Iraq/Afghanistan get much of their news from the TV networks. Often when questioned by reporters they are repeating what they learned from the TV news. Once they repeat it, it magically becomes "fact" and is reported as such.
That's why I'm a BIG proponent of ignoring much of what the news reports immediately (except that such-and-such an event occurred) and delaying my judgement until the dust settles and the facts are in.

Jaycee

The MILITARY is the propaganda machine that put out video showing soldiers kicking down unlocked doors, thank you.

Dupes.

Jaycee

The MILITARY is the propaganda machine that put out video showing soldiers kicking down unlocked doors, thank you.

Dupes. They think we are just dupes.

Yes, the soldier who signs up to defend the country honorably (that excludes criminals like those at Abu Ghirab) is an inspiration. The officials, generals and cowboys who jump at a chance to defend oil interests are plain scum.

Jaycee

The MILITARY is the propaganda machine that put out video showing soldiers kicking down unlocked doors, thank you.

Dupes. They think we are just dupes.

Yes, the soldier who signs up to defend the country honorably (that excludes criminals like those at Abu Ghirab) is an inspiration. The officials, generals and cowboys who jump at a chance to defend oil interests are a desecration.

I tried to stop the first [post and apologize for the word scum. Desecration is more accurate if one holds the flag and what it stnads for as near-holy.

Mr. Langer, you don't have much experience conducting house-clearing operations in a MOUT environment, do you? Didn't think so.
Um, yes, they kick down doors.

Yes, kicked them down despite being let into the building and accompanied by freindlies who led them to Lynch, I believe.

90% was a show for the folks at home, all carefully documented for consumption. The lies about her own brave shooting of enemies was concocted for similar effect. Face it, this administration and the military under it has been out to sugar-coat and spin from day one.

Face it, Mr. Langer, you're a left wing liberal who hates Bush and you'll twist any facts in order to attack the current administration.
You and I saw the same phony news stories invented by the lying media and printed BEFORE any official military or government information was dessiminated. No official sources were cited in the first fantasy reports by reporters, they sensationalized their misinformation in hopes of "scooping" the competition.
Now they seek to blame it all on the military even when NO media outlet waited for official word before printing their stories.
Do the timeline, Mr. Langer. The stories/lies/inventions/sensationalizing was done BEFORE the government released any offical information. It was simply the news media doing what they do best---getting the story out before the facts were in. Now they have egg on their faces for irresponsibly inventing news stories and they seek to deflect the justified criticism. They do it all the time.

Wrong, jaycee, I am a registered independent who wanted McCain in 2000. I am offended you think my wholly justified distrust of the Bushies automatically implies I am a left-wing nut or something. Bush's team won that election and the primaries by insinuating with the same sorts of lies they have promulgated since they took office.

The video was supplied by imbedded photographers who were coached by the military. How else could they have gotten images of the soldiers kicking in doors? Or did the news media dress up in uniform and stage it all?

The release of DISinformation was carefully timed and entirely scripted to give the illusion desired. The Pat Tillman story was even more bogus and despicable, treating his family like imbeciles and patsies, who couldn't "handle the truth" of the military's own errant aim at their own. That may be one of the costs of war, killing our own soldiers, but the government doesn't want it to have such a famous face, so they lied. Lied.

McCain would never have let them lie that way. That he now kowtows to Bush like a trained dog is one of more disgusting turn-arounds in political history.

Mr. Langer, you being a liberal has nothing to do with which party affiliation you claim. It's what you believe and what's in your heart. Your hatred of Bush and his administration is transparently evident in the things you say.
Please go back and read what I posted and do some research on your own. The stories about Lynch gushed out like crap from a goose BEFORE the military or the government released any official reports. They were sensationalized by an overeager press relying on unnamed sources to "scoop" the competition, regardless of the facts.

I do not know how you think the news media got video of the Lynch story without being led by the nose by the government.

What qualities (other than thoroughly disliking the incompetence of Bush and his cronies, which is an opinion shared by many fine Republicans, by the way, although a good many won't say it quite so forcefully) constitute being "liberal" to you, jaycee? I am no freind of abortion on demand, I do not want taxes everywhere for everything, I like the idea of people working for their paycheck (so much that I think earned income should be taxed lower than investment income...decidedly not the Republican plank, of course).

Granted, if you believe only by embracing IDiocy about the formation of the universe one can qualify as a non-liberal, I guess the left must actually include most of the middle for you.

Jaycee:
Why do you refuse to assign any accountability to the military for willfully creating misinformation?
And why is anybody who brings it up subject to attacks as liberal or anti-Bush?
Fact is, it is wrong an dishonorable to create such battlefield myths.
Call us names if you will. Blame the whole thing on the media. But such tactics are plain wrong any way and look at them.

Allen, I try to dig through the BS and look at ther facts, not the hype by the media defending themselves. I don't care for misleading information provided by either the government or the media. But it appears the official government/military information released much later than the initial made-up media stories affected the subsequent news coverage very little. The media already had their "facts" and stories and didn't change their stories when the facts surfaced.
The FACT is that the media lied, made up facts, used non-existent "sources" and fueled the fantasy long before the government released any official information in this case. What do you not understand about that? Look at the time line, it's plainly evident. Did the government know exactly every fact surrounding this case immediately within minutes or hours? Of course not, but that didn't stop the media from gushing out sensationalized stories with invented facts they concocted all on their own as if THEY alone knew each and every fact. That was BS by the media, plain and simple, and those lies affected everyone's opinion of the subject for years afterward. You can't un-ring a bell.
Allen, is the media responsible for it's lie, prevarications, inventions, and misleading information? I certainly hope you answer, "Yes."
If you want to put it a different way, the media gave the public it's misleading information long before the government did, and in these days of short-attention-span news consumers we'd already had our minds made up for us by the media before the government info came out.

Jim Langer is anti-Bush, and that's evident not only from this post but from many others he's made. Go read them with an impartial eye and you'll see that. He is not liberal merely for his statements here, if you look at the totality of his writings you'll see that as well.

I am also a gadfly willing to take the devil's advocate role. I am not locked into a set of blinders. Jaycee, you are a piece of work.

Are you a professional researcher, Jaycee? Do you have advanced degrees in "real" journalism or philosphy? Have you ever been published other than on blogs, so that your thought is subject to reveiew by qualified professionals and researchers? Do you know the rules of logic? Do you have inside sourcs at the Pentagon?

Are you the real Deep Throat?

And oh, yes, I AM thoroughly against this bungling, deceitful and gung-ho administration. Whatever goodwill Bush may have salvaged from his (not exactly prompt) reaction to 9/11, he squandered world-wide.

The guy is not fit for the office.

Mr. Langer, the facts are there if you look. Have you? It's called a TIMELINE. That refers to the time that things happen. Stories were written, opinions were quoted as facts, and rumors were printed as gospel way before the government released any official information about the incident.
If you have trouble researching this, let me know and I'll help you out.