As NewsBusters reported Monday, a writer named Corey Mitchell posted an amazingly disgraceful blog at the liberal website Daily Kos Thursday stating that the United States armed forces were creating serial killers and mass murderers.
USA Today's "On Deadline" blogger Mike Carney spoke with Mitchell on Monday about this matter (emphasis added throughout):
"It's not my intention to denigrate the troops," Corey Mitchell says. "It's to help them when they get back."
Imagine that. He wants to help them by misrepresenting a connection between honorable men that put their lives on the line serving this nation and serial killers. I get it:
Within a few hours of the original posting, Mitchell says he added a disclaimer: This article in no way is meant to suggest that all military members will become serial killers or mass murderers. It does point out a serious problem with what is happening in our armed forces and seeks a solution to help the brave men and women on their return back home.
But Mitchell says he then pulled the posting from both blogs after readers, liberals and conservatives alike, "ripped it to shreds." He says no one from Daily Kos asked him to remove the posting.
"The piece was completely misinterpreted by the readers," he says. "I don't know if that's because I did a bad job writing it? ... My piece was pro-soldier all the way."
You know, Corey, I've reread your piece of detritus, and can't find the pro-soldier element. But I digress:
"I don't think flat-out 100% if a person goes into the military they're going to come out as a serial killer or mass murderer. I do think that everything in a killer's life determines who they become."
Mitchell says he may decide to republish the piece on his blog, but is weighing the effect of all the negative attention on his wife, who works on a military base, and their young daughter. "I have to weigh my family's stress level versus how necessary is it to have that piece up," he writes in a follow-up e-mail.
He says the republished posting would include this addendum: I decided to repost this after being excoriated by both left- and right-wing blogs. After speaking with various military personnel who read this post they assured me that it is very obvious and clear what I was getting at. The military trains people to kill and some of our men and women return home and don't receive the proper care to deal with the horrors of war or even the intensity of training. Not a single one of them thought I was trying to smear the soldiers or call them serial killers. They thanked me for pointing out a serious problem that gets overlooked by the military and needs to be dealt with.
Maybe USA Today ought to interview some members of the military and get their take on this piece - which has been reposted at In Cold Blog - rather than Mitchell's assessment of their view.
Oh, that's right. That would be too much like journalism.
As an aside, Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas responded to a USA Today inquiry on the subject: "There are almost 1,000 diaries written every single day on Daily Kos," he writes. "I don't keep track of all of them."
Markos, here's a crazy idea: take some of the $9,000 per week you're charging for a premium ad at your site and hire some editors to "keep track of all of them" for you.
Oh, that's right. That would also be too much like journalism.
