I just got this from my old BN CO in Vietnam. I thought you guys would find it interesting.
George

I'm waiting for Ivan to hit. That's boring so I thought I'd share some thoughts with you.

In the book "Stolen Valor" there is a chapter entitled "CBS Hits 'The Wall Within.'"
"The Wall Within" was a so-called CBS documentary (familiar word these days) that was 14 months in the making and the host was Dan Rather (he of the current 60 minutes segment concerning the President's National Guard duty). The show's depiction of the Vietnam Veteran "precisely fit what Americans have grown to believe about the Vietnam War and its veterans: They routinely committed war crimes. They came home from an immoral war traumatized, vilified, then pitied. Jobless, homeless, addicted, suicidal, they remain afflicted by inner conflicts, stranded on the fringes of society." Believe me, that is a very, very false picture indeed! By the way, it's the same kind of false picture Kerry painted in his infamous testimony to Congress and the American people in the 1970s.

That Rather/CBS show focused on six "Vietnam veterans." All testified live and in color to the horrors and atrocities they faced/participated in. All claimed to have had their lives wrecked by the experience and to be living in the tortured world of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a nutshell, of the six only one had any record of having served in direct combat with the enemy and even he greatly exaggerated his story. The other five were simply liars. Even if Rather believed them at the time, it does not explain why, when confronted with their true war records, he didn't/doesn't apologize and expose the truth with the same amount of fervor. Maybe a one out of six truth rate is OK by journalistic standards. Even Jane Fonda apologized to the Vietnam veterans. Why not Rather? (or Kerry?).

Now here we are with Rather and another CBS "Documentary." This time the subject is alleged documentation concerning the President's National Guard service. I wonder if Rather did the same amount due diligence regarding these documents as he did for "The Wall Within"? As more document experts, family members of the alleged documenter and people in the Air Guard chain of command at the time become known it's beginning to look like Rather and CBS are up to their old tricks and trickery and, based on their track record we should give this current work absolutely no credibility. I know O'Reilly has been defending Rather, but even O'Reilly can be wrong.

There is a serious side issue involved here. Based on the kind of journalism that seems to typify this new 60 Minutes "documentary" and the other shoddy reporting (analysis by neophytes, sycophants and dilettantes) we are being subjected to, it appears that economic/readership/listenership issues are forcing our mainstream media to compete with the tabloids and paparazzi. If so, we are in real trouble because there will be no plain news reporting. Maybe there isn't and we aren't aware of it. Don't tell me "fair and balanced" Fox is an exception. All FNC does is give air time to talking heads with two diametric but equally biased points of view who argue and talk over each other. It's all spin.

By the way, during the Korean War Rather joined the Army Reserves. Why? Maybe it was to avoid the draft, or are only the mavens of the media allowed to analyze and judge the actions of others? Although then press refers to him as an ex-Marine, Rather didn't join the USMC until after the Korean War and he did not finish recruit training. He was discharged after 4 months as medically unfit. I really don't care who avoided the draft, how or why unless it was by going AWOL, which is a legal issue. I do care when the media portray the Guard and Reserves as an out for the "privileged class." As far as I know, it's equal opportunity. You just have to have the motivation to go for it.

Ron Rabin
Colonel, Infantry
US Army (Ret.)