Again, this time at TIME Magazine. I count Benjamin as one of our era’s Ernie Pyles, from his Salon series on suicides at Camp Lejeune to his unflinching coverage of torture. And he’s kept on the Arlington Cemetery scandal with persistence and grace. Ernie Pyle crossed with Seymour Hersh: because when he sniff something wrong,Continue reading “mark benjamin blows the whistle”
Category Archives: journalists
Just read. Leon Panetta, there’s an epidemic on and your job to deal with it.
At Common Dreams, Annette Bonsignore asks the questionI hadn’t got around to: ” Will the Media Give Leon Panetta the Same Pass Provided to Robert Gates on the Military’s Rape Epidemic?” She lays out the challenge very well: The media now has an opportunity to confront and question the next Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who wasContinue reading “Just read. Leon Panetta, there’s an epidemic on and your job to deal with it.”
As for that list of officers McCain mentioned…..
Some reporters from this outfit looked more closely at the letter McCain was waving around this week before Congress and the TV cameras, saying the letter had proved that many officers supported the policy. But the average age of the signers was 74, most had never served since 1993, and when asked by the journosContinue reading “As for that list of officers McCain mentioned…..”
Leave no FNG behind: thoughts on Kelly Kennedy’s They Fought for Each Other
I’ve hoped to grow up to be Kelly Kennedy ever since my friend, rockstar author Alia Malek, profiled the Military Times reporter for Columbia Journalism Review. I knew it was impossible, of course, as the very first line of Kennedy’s author bio makes clear: “Kelly Kennedy served as a soldier in Desert Storm and Mogadishu,Continue reading “Leave no FNG behind: thoughts on Kelly Kennedy’s They Fought for Each Other “
today is a moving target
First installment in a not-unprecedented effort to start over and draft a NEW final chapter in plain sight So the scene I included in my Murtha-obit post? I once thought of it as a prologue for the entire book — except that even if I,’d been right on deadline, that 2005 scene would have feltContinue reading “today is a moving target”
War films and books: Who can’t handle the truth?
Last fall, I thought a lot about what writing about war really meant. Two articles this week went at that question kind of sideways: First, a Week in Review piece by Washington insider Elizabeth Bumiller, about the newest rack of books on the Iraq and Afghan wars, saying that these soldier-writers “explore the futility ofContinue reading “War films and books: Who can’t handle the truth?”
“the erroneous belief that they have rights”
Certainly not those guaranteed by the First Amendment, with its pesky talk of free speech. This just in from Iraq Veterans Against the War: The U.S .military plans to extradite stop-lossed Iraq war vet to Iraq for court martial over protest rap song Fort Stewart, Ga. – The US military plans to extradite a stop-lossedContinue reading ““the erroneous belief that they have rights””
Two medical whistleblower stories today
Newest first: Mark Benjamin’s story about a Camp Lejeune psychiatrist who was booted after going public with concerns about PTSD treatment practices. In one instance last April, for example, Manion warned Cmdr. Robert O’Byrne, head of mental health at the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital, of “immediate concerns of physical safety” due to mistreated Marines teeteringContinue reading “Two medical whistleblower stories today”
I Ain't Marching Anymore 