Facts Can Be So Unfair
The Washington Post ran a two-part series on conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past week. Mentioned in those articles were such things as a soldier with a broken neck was assigned a room in which there was black mold and a hole in the ceiling above the shower. The army responded yesterday, according to an article in today's Washington Post:
The Army's surgeon general yesterday criticized stories in The Washington Post disclosing problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, saying the series unfairly characterized the living conditions and care for soldiers recuperating from wounds at the hospital's facilities.
"I'm not sure it was an accurate representation," Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, chief of the Army Medical Command, told reporters during a news conference. "It was a one-sided representation."
...Until now, the Army had not challenged any aspect of the Post series. Army and Defense Department leaders have promised to eliminate squalid conditions in Building 18, a former hotel outside the Walter Reed gate where 76 wounded soldiers live as outpatients. They have also promised to address bureaucratic problems in the handling of wounded soldiers. [Emphasis added]
One-sided or not, if any civilian medical center contained the "squalid conditions" described in the WP articles, the local authorities would have shut down the place and accrediting agencies would be yanking tickets so fast hospital administrators would have to be treated for whiplash.
The real kicker in today's article, however, came after the news conference:
Asked to elaborate on his comments after the news conference at the facility, Kiley said he does not dispute the facts in the Post stories. "It's not the accuracy I question, it's the characterization," he said. [Emphasis added]
Huh?
Letting the public know that wounded Iraq War veterans have been placed in "squalid conditions" is one-sided? Well, if that side is labeled "Truth," I suppose Lt.Gen.Kiley's assessment might hold water. Disclosing the truth of the shabby treatment wounded soldiers face when they come home might make some Pentagon and administration officials uncomfortable or even embarrassed, but it happens to be the function of the press in this country. And if the disclosure of the truth results in the mold being scrubbed away with bleach and the room re-painted, then the press has done its job.
This time the Washington Post nailed it, beautifully so.
The Army's surgeon general yesterday criticized stories in The Washington Post disclosing problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, saying the series unfairly characterized the living conditions and care for soldiers recuperating from wounds at the hospital's facilities.
"I'm not sure it was an accurate representation," Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, chief of the Army Medical Command, told reporters during a news conference. "It was a one-sided representation."
...Until now, the Army had not challenged any aspect of the Post series. Army and Defense Department leaders have promised to eliminate squalid conditions in Building 18, a former hotel outside the Walter Reed gate where 76 wounded soldiers live as outpatients. They have also promised to address bureaucratic problems in the handling of wounded soldiers. [Emphasis added]
One-sided or not, if any civilian medical center contained the "squalid conditions" described in the WP articles, the local authorities would have shut down the place and accrediting agencies would be yanking tickets so fast hospital administrators would have to be treated for whiplash.
The real kicker in today's article, however, came after the news conference:
Asked to elaborate on his comments after the news conference at the facility, Kiley said he does not dispute the facts in the Post stories. "It's not the accuracy I question, it's the characterization," he said. [Emphasis added]
Huh?
Letting the public know that wounded Iraq War veterans have been placed in "squalid conditions" is one-sided? Well, if that side is labeled "Truth," I suppose Lt.Gen.Kiley's assessment might hold water. Disclosing the truth of the shabby treatment wounded soldiers face when they come home might make some Pentagon and administration officials uncomfortable or even embarrassed, but it happens to be the function of the press in this country. And if the disclosure of the truth results in the mold being scrubbed away with bleach and the room re-painted, then the press has done its job.
This time the Washington Post nailed it, beautifully so.
Labels: Free Press, Iraq War
posted by Diane at 9:39 AM
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