Tom Wieliczka writes:” Saw your “Bush sending More Troops” article this morning. I hope you read this Salon article this morning. I am peaved and have already expressed my anger to Rep Larson and Sen Dodd (forget worthless Lieberman).

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq

At Fort Benning, soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight are now being sent to war. Is this an isolated incident or a trend?

Mar. 11, 2007 | “This is not right,” said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear.”This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers,” he said angrily. “If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are
not fit to fight.”

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records….”

SAM GORGE WRITES FROM TEXAS:

Your article takes a political position that I interpret as anti Iraq war. I don’t have a problem with that but its your opinion and not necessarily other media outlets. To call for other media to support your agenda is silly. Thats why we have competitive news and editorials. I can’t imagine any other media outlet adopting anothers opinion. If all did that we would have no need for more than one outlet and I do not think that would be a good thing.

Now, what does media watchdog mean? I really don’t know. Just like you and I, all are entitled to their bias. On the other hand, if “watchdog” means challenging inaccurate reporting thats great. However, any challenge should be based on solid facts and not “he said - she said” or “this is my opinion” gimmicks we so often see. News is facts, not what someone would like the facts to be (that is usually called propaganda).

I will take a bit more of your time with my personal opinion on media. All outlets have their agendas. I’m 68 years old and can remember at least as far back as Cronkite and peers. They were professional, very biased and typically opinionated. Again, I don’t have a problem with that as long as there is a counter. That didn’t happen for decades until C-Span came along and worked miracles. Political news was presented straight from the horses mouth without some commentator trying to say what he thought was said by a
given politician. Then came cable “news”. While not the best, a different bias was available. From that time forward the world of media news has changed for the better. I haven’t watched the big 3 in years and seldom watch more than one of the cable outlets. I do spend much time on the internet reading news from around the world from blogs, newspapers and forums ranging from fanatical to reasoned. With the ME situation I spend
much of my time reading sources from that region. Very few if any are credible (now you see we all have opinions) but a person can learn much even from “bad” sources. Being American born of Lebanese/French decent the ME is of particular interest to me.

I stayed in touch with friends and relatives in Lebanon during the Israeli - Hezbollah skirmish. A relative in the south of Lebanon, an M.D. who saw the results first hand, was giving me incredible detail. Nothing in our national news or ME news was coming close to the facts on the ground. Then the ME outlets, and to some extent US outlets, started giving opinions as to who won the war. The consequence of this false reporting will likely be another confrontation with far worse impact on the Lebanese people. This I mention as an example of what biased opinions can lead to. The same is true of events in Iraq. You and all writers have much influence over people. Be careful. Be very careful.

ANDREW HERMAN WRITES

know what you mean. I have been fighting debts myself. But as a RPCV, returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Africa, I can tell you there is a big difference bewteen an African never learning to read and an America spending too much on their cars, vacations, and homes.

In most villages in Africa there are no medicines. You get certain 100% curable diseases there and you die like a dog. At least in America the worst case scenario is the shame of bankruptcy or a long hard road to work off the debts you acquired.

Quite a big difference, huh?

Let Bono well enough alone with the Africa cause.

NEW FILM SITE WORTH VISITING

My name is Davin Hutchins and I operate a new website called NomadsLand.com - an online film destination devoted to films with a political or social message. I just visited your site and I think that we might have the same interests in films, social issues and
alternative media.

We just launched in January and are in the process of initiating a grass-roots campaign to build links to our site. We host feature films, documentaries and satire for free – as long as the film seeks to make a social commentary, stimulate political conversation or encourage some social action. Our initial films include festival worthy features on
Sudan, Afghanistan and the Asian tsunami.

APOLOGIES TO THE LEFT FORUM

I criticized the Forum for not having cultural events, but it turns out I missed them on Friday.

Spencer writes: “it was nice to meet you, and thank you for your thoughtful coverage danny. for the record, i do want to note that you missed our(admittedly underpublicized) friday night film festival though we had 6 social & cultural events this year.”

And so there you go, accepting criticism goes with the territory. Keep watching Mediachannel.org as the changes on the site keep coming.

Your comments are welcome. Hopefully many of you who for reasons unknown were not receiving this blog are back on board, and if find it of value, your help is welcome in getting the word out and encouraging others to subscribe.

Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org