Pat Tillman Case: How the Press Was Spun

[kpete]

Published on Sunday, March 5, 2006 by Editor & Publisher
Pat Tillman Case: How the Press Was Spun

The killing of the former pro football star in Afghanistan is back in the news, as the military probes possible criminal charges. But the military officials who lied for so long to the press, to the public--and, even worse, to Tillman's family--continue to escape penalty.

by Greg Mitchell

The Pat Tillman case is back in the news, with the Army’s belated announcement that it is launching a criminal probe into the “friendly fire” killing of the former pro football star in Afghanistan in April 2004. It’s a long way, indeed, since those days immediately after the tragic incident when Tillman's death was promoted by the Pentagon as a symbol of American goodness in the war on terrorists.

While the criminal matter takes center stage, we should not forget that the military not only lied to Tillman’s friends and family about the episode, but also--in the tradition of the Jessica Lynch affair—to the press. Eventually, the media played a key role in helping to get the truth out. As far as anyone knows, none of the Army officials who misled the world have been punished.

Tillman's mother, Mary, told The Washington Post on Saturday that she believes evidence of a crime has existed all along, and that the family's repeated calls for a criminal investigation were ignored until now. Her husband,
Patrick Tillman Sr., commented, "if you send investigators to reinvestigate an investigation that was falsified in the first place, what do you think you're going to get?"

.............

The Post's Josh White reported in May that Tillman's parents were now ripping the Army, saying that the military's investigations into their son's 2004 "friendly fire" death in Afghanistan was a sham based on "lies" and that the Army cover-up made it harder for them to deal with their loss. They were speaking out because they have finally had a chance to look at the full records of the military probe

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0305-22.htm

[SoCalDem]

1. The "press" was "spun" because they wanted to be spun

Lots of people don;t realize that the press does this all the time.. Why??

They get a two-fer or even a three-fer..

#1.. OMG Look what WE found out..blah-blah-bloah..

#2...OMG "they" tricked us (of course we never bothered to fact-check or research in the first place)

#3...OMG..WOE is US..the public dosn;t believe us, and are usiing blogs to find out what's happening,..

[MADem]

2. His father said it best--Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore

It hasn't been since the OO selection, apparently:


"It was also a distorted and incomplete narrative, according to dozens of internal Army documents obtained by The Washington Post that describe Tillman's death by fratricide after a chain of botched communications, a misguided order to divide his platoon over the objection of its leader and undisciplined firing by fellow Rangers.

"The Army's public release made no mention of friendly fire, even though at the time it was issued, investigators in Afghanistan had already taken at least 14 sworn statements from Tillman's platoon members that made clear the true causes of his death.

"But the Army's published account not only withheld all evidence of fratricide, but also exaggerated Tillman's role and stripped his actions of their context. ... The Army's April 30 news release was just one episode in a broader Army effort to manage the uncomfortable facts of Pat Tillman's death, according to internal records and interviews."

Now the Army is going after soldiers who presumably pulled the triggers at the scene. There is no evidence that it is looking at its own high-level cover-up.

Way to go, Army...kill the kid, cover it up, and hand his sobbing parents a bullshit, undeserved medal as a sop for the whole deal.

With that many damn witnesses, how long did they think they could keep this hidden? You have to wonder if they were hoping all the witnesses would eventually sustain battle damage, if ya know what I mean....

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," Tillman’s father told the Post last year. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."