Some US troops question Woodruff coverage

monsters and critics ^ | Feb 1, 2006, 0:10 GMT | By Pamela Hess

[BlueJ7]

Why do you think this is such a huge story?' wrote an officer stationed in Baqubah, Iraq, Monday via e-mail. 'It`s a bit stunning to us over here how absolutely dominant the story is on every network and front page. I mean, you`d think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something.

[hillary's_fat_a**]

God, I agree 100%.

[satchmodog9]

The media is the story. They cover deaths of their own like it was the president. When the media becomes the story, it is all over.

[ozoneliar]

I agree wholeheartedly, but this phenomenon is nothing new. The media has always had its priorities messed up.

[MizSterious]

No kidding--especially ABC. This morning Sawyer all but called him Saint Bob. Even Fox is bad about this story--I think they're giving it more air time than Natalee Halloway.

[clintonh8r]

I wonder if ABC will reimburse the taxpayers for all the expenses....

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Having a personal connection to someone injured or killed on the battlefield is a relatively rare experience for journalists. Fewer than 1 percent of the U.S. population is part of the military; very few reporters have served. The war is comfortably distant, until a fellow journalist is affected. It could have been me, we think. The full weight of war is hard to comprehend until it happens to you, or someone you know, or someone like you.

[jamesm51]

gotta love the comments on the last page:

If soldiers are jealous of the coverage that Bob Woodruf is getting due to his injuries maybe they should complain to their bosses, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, who have censored everything coming out of Iraq. They don't want the American people to see dead and wounded soldiers coming home as that might have a negative effect on morale with the result that folks would start turning against the war. So if soldiers want to change the policy, complain to your bosses and the neocon controlled media.

[Kimmers]

They had a discussion about this very thing on one of our local radio stations between two of the hosts. They basically said the same thing. This man volunteered for this and got paid a heck of a lot more money than the men and women that defend this country.

[Cognoscenti247]

"Soldiers and Marines do not have the option of demurring, and they are almost guaranteed to see colleagues maimed and killed during their seven to 12 months deployed there. They are as much volunteers as Woodruff in Iraq, and less well paid"

point well taken!

[funkywbr]

Hey I'm a F'n G-D REPORTER!!!

It's all about ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RichInOC]

What happened to Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt sucks, and I hope they both make a complete recovery, but getting blown up is just as much an occupational hazard for war correspondents as it is for the troops. I think Woodruff and Vogt understood that. The rest of the press needs either to make peace with it or at least stop whining.

[pollyg107]

I agree, too. At early church on Sunday morning, my sister asked me if I had heard about this. My response was that I had heard way more than I needed to. She seemed somewhat shocked that I thought the press was paying entirely too much attention to the wounding of one of its own.

[Spirited]

Only the media is sacred to the media.

In any other language it's called selfishness.

[cookcounty]

" The media is the story. "

Strange as it may seem, the reporters, of all people, definitely live in a celebrity bubble.

It is the "Main Stream Media" and the MSM alone that has evaluted the situation and determined that The Only Mother That Matters (aka Mrs. Sheehan) deserves 99.8% of the attention, and the other mothers should go straight to the double hockey sticks. Very smarmy folks.

[Merry]

I said the same thing on Saturday. They gave it non stop coverage even Fox. Woodruff was doing his job. I am sorry he got hurt but we have military getting hurt every day. It's all about priorities. The MSM demoralizes our troops but want one of their own to be treated like a hero when they get hurt. The real heroes are our military.

[Darkwolf377]

I just posted this on another thread:

I'm sorry these two got hurt and hope they have speedy recoveries, so this is not directed at them but at those covering the story.

The MSM think we all care so damned much about THEM. Meanwhile, thousands of our people die over there with only one sad story aimed more at hurting the President than in honoring the fallen.

[FreedomCalls]

I wonder how he got to use military hospital facilities. He's just a civilian. ABC said that ABC was paying for his treatment at Bethesda, but no other civilian can get treated at Bethesda just by paying for it. When I go abroad I have to carry extra insurance just in case I need to be medevac'ed back to the U.S. in an emergency. But he got treated in Iraq (OK, I understand this one), got evac'ed with military troops on a military airlift to Landstuhl in Germany, treated at the Army hospital at Landstuhl by Army surgeons, evac'ed on a military flight to the Naval Military Hospital at Bethesda, and is currently being treated at the Naval Hospital at Bethesda by tax-paid DoD military doctors. How is this possible?

[eyespysomething]

Ping to what I said when we first heard about this:

"Too bad they don't cover every injured US military person like that."

Truthfully, it affected the media more because it was someone "just like them" or they knew him, or "it could have been" them. And since they have the floor, so to speak, when it comes to the story...

I agree with this, but still understand it.

[FreedomCalls]

I wonder if ABC will reimburse the taxpayers for all the expenses....

So any civilian should be able to get treated at a U.S. military hospital just by paying for it? What would you say to military retirees who are turned away becasue there is no "space available" for treatment and yet they have room to treat a civilian journalist? I don't understand this situation.