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December 09, 2004

It's A Scandal! Or, "All The News We Make That's Fit To Print"

The story about the soldier challenging Secretary of Defense Donal Rumself has been reported all over.

It turns out that the soldier was prodded & coached before hand to ask the challenging questions by Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Pitts, which he bragged about in an e-mail to his Times Free Press colleagues.

What do we call it, Timefreepressgate? Timeswefreelymakeupthenewsgate?

Here's the e-mail:

From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, MILITARY AFFAIRS
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers

Subject: RE: Way to go

I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.

The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.

Thanks,

Lee

| By Josiah Roe | 03:52 PM

Comments

hey, i tried to comment the other day but you had it locked down. so, excuse me for posting this here (couldn't find an email)...

anyway, to help with the comment spammers, check out mod_throttle for apache...

-kpaul

Posted by: kpaul at December 9, 2004 08:29 PM

I saw the soldier's ex-wife on the news, and it said that she was from Chattanooga.

Posted by: Nat at December 10, 2004 11:03 AM

When I first read your post I was ticked, but then I started to think about it. Was this reporter wrong in what he did? I mean, he was able to put into words what the soldiers had already been thinking and to get the soldiers to bring the complaint to the top. The self aggrandizing on the part of the reporter is no good, but he probably did the right thing.....

Posted by: gid at December 10, 2004 11:04 AM

Just trying to put myself in the other guy's shoes for a minute, I'd probably be a little jumpy about zipping around Iraq in an unarmored vehicle, too, but his email does show something of an unprofessional glee. It looks as though his career advancement is what's primarily on his mind, which is not cool when dealing with issues such as these.

Having said that, I'm not sure that it's scandalous for him to ask soldiers to ask questions for him. They didn't have to, and the General didn't have to recognize them. Also, the issue that he raised is far from making up the news freely. Lack of armor on vehicles and bodies is a real problem in the war in Iraq, and it legitimately needs to be addressed.

Posted by: Phil at December 10, 2004 01:16 PM