I predict in 2008, I will be talking
more and more about equalizing activism
which is something that has been
remarkably missing out here in our
great national Veterans advocacy
arena. The system is broken and
a complete mess, and it is riddled
with extremes which all needs neutralizing.

Part of this is caused by the Veterans
themselves and their related activists
up until now. By focusing on only one
part of the system, the entire aerial
view of the contemporary mess we are
faced with, as a complicated topography
of some getting it all while others
get none at all. Equalizing these peaks
and valleys is where the all new Vet
advocacies have to be taken.

One such area is the overall public
imaging of military veterans, both
in and out of war.

The news media has been locked into
an obsolete and wholly misguided
FORMULA of news reporting that
hasn't really served any of us very
well. The public is getting skewed
information and profiles on all of
us, none of which is very flattering,
and we as Activists have been standing
by and letting it happen.

While Veterans themselves have been
part of the problem, we Activists
really DO have to unite and rise up
against that fixable part of which
the news media itself is part of
the blame.

It is hurting all of us, and not
just some of us.

In some ways, war Veterans do become
their own self-fulfilling prophecy.
Criminal Veterans prosecuted; drunk
and high Veterans gone nuts; murder
suicides against the families; and
legions upon legions of mental illness
cases all caused by one reason or
another. This is what the American
public is starting to identify all
of us as a crowd with.

The entirety of the newspaper, radio,
and TV media all rotates around the
doings of the Associated Press, and
it is here that the all skewing
FORMULA reporting emerges
and shows itself. They publish the
rules of reporting, and they control
all the teaching textbooks on news
media reporting.

It was found over the 2 year period
that I was advocating before the
Veterans Disability Benefits Commission
that even when carefully worded and
scrutinized press releases were issued
to the Associated Press for the best
and most relevant points of the story
they wanted covered, the AP decided
along the way to first skew the stories,
and then in so doing, ultimately BUNGLE
the overall emphasis of the news story
from it's original release when sent
out by the official sources.

The AP is literally obsessed with
PTSD for instance, and all other important
news coverage from inside our community,
equal in power and interest to our
Vet consumer group, is left by the
wayside often not even carried by
AP writers.

This all has to stop.

In the press release issued by the
VDBC commissioners of October 3,
they had put front and center as
the lead part of their headline
the simple fact that they were calling
upon the VA to standardize disability
claims which then went on to elaborate
on secondary points intended to be
supplemental and subordinated to that
lead headline.

The resulting AP news story which
came out over the next 2 days from
that release, never bothered to mention
even once the lead headline of the
Commission demanding that the VA
standardize the claims process.
Instead, and for the 1 millionth time,
all references to PTSD was once again
put front and center as if it was
the only content of the press release
they had issued.

In the press release issued by the
Institute of Medicine, wholly denouncing
the entire VA disability rating system
and insisting that it be both updated
and replaced by the International
Classification of Diseases, the AP
once again bungled the content and
carried a misguided interview with
DAV who was not even in the room
for the IOM release presentation,
and the skewed AP story that went
out had to do with disability compensation
pay scales which was not even
barely discussed as a secondary topic in
the overall headline of that press release.

The most interesting part of the
Institute of Medicine press release,
never made it to the final published
version of the news, and that headline
is exactly what would have been the
most useful and interesting to Veterans
around the country.

Are Associated Press writers even
literate and do they know how to
read ?? This is a fair question to
know. Or are they working on some kind
of hidden political agenda that the
rest of the public is not told about ??

While both combat and non-combat
Veteran activists have been hammering
on the news media well BEFORE the
start of the Iraq War on such issues
as the conditions at Walter Reed and
the corrupt legal system for disability
claims at the VA, it is only during
periods of war and when only raised
by modern day returning troops that
these stories actually make it to
the news.

And then, instead of interviewing
those Activist sources who have
been working the system for YEARS
and knows the complete ins and outs
of it; they will take the youngest
possible returning troop from a combat
zone -- who doesn't know SQUAT about
the system or even life itself, and
then that will become the national
interviewing voice that we all have
to sit around and listen to.

In a war profile story last year
done by NBC's Tom Brokaw which was
a kind of "band of brothers" profile
story of returning troops from
Iraq across a group of high school
friends, the Veterans were first
shown as schoolmates who enlisted;
then active duty troops slightly
injured or all out killed in Iraq
combat; then followed home to the
states where they spent their
every waking nights inside of barooms
drinking booze and playing pool together
as the all new Slackers of the day.

This all has to stop.

It is the kind of Formula reporting
that the news media has been so very
locked into since the Vietnam Era
and it really is time for updating
and a demand for change.

The public is getting a steady daily
dose of not only the issue of dwindled
support for the war itself; but also
a steady stream of troops and Veterans
as bums, slobs, slackers, misfits, drunks,
and semi-whacko criminal types.

The rest of us who are NOT in that
league are dragged along for the ride.
Valor and bumhood are NOT synonymous.

There is a place for war ICON reporting
where Valor and only Valor is the
crux of the story. But let's get real,
there is a TON of VA and DOD INJUSTICE
topics which only the Activists are
experts in these days, and all of those
Activists, whether combat related or not,
should be receiving their fair share of
the news media coverage.

Veterans in recovery, Veterans getting
on with their lives are also key profile
matters which deserves a lot more attention
in the news.

If the news media was half as good
at OUTTING the broken shambles of
the VA disability system as it is
at profiling returning troops as
criminals and slobs, then perhaps
the entire crisis inside the VA
would extinguish itself and be no
more in a New York Minute.

A-h-h-h-h-h
And isn't THAT a lovely thought ??

REPLY TO LEON:

Unfortunately Leon, it is the chemical
exposure crowd who is the LARGEST
patient population in the entire
VA system, and they are tanking the
claims backlog. That right now is our
national priority. For your information,
the right to free licensed lawyers
advocacy was begun yesterday at the
Senate. This will get free lawyers
(an NOT "volunteers") into the hands
of poor Veterans up to incomes
of $18,000 per year if it flies.

The news media has to be reserved
for those who play by the rules,
as in the wonderful recent production
of Waging War On The VA profiling
Marine burn victim Ty Ziegel and
2 other outstanding valor cases
who are getting on with their lives.
This is what the majority of us
wants, and we will continue to back
that effort.

Good luck to you Leon, take care.

ALL VETERANS NEED TO PULL TOGETHER ALL OVER THE WORLD,GET ON THE NEWS,GET IN THE PAPERS,FLOOD THE WHITE HOUSE WITH COMPLAINTS OF THE INJUSTICE VETERANS ARE GETTING,WE NOW HAVE TO FIGHT OUR OWN WAR AGAINT HOMELESSNESS,HUNGAR,AND POOR HEALTHCARE