I wrote recently about the press reporting on veteran-committed crimes as a trend of veteran/psychopaths returned from the war. CNN and the Christian Science Monitor were guilty last week. Now it’s USA Today’s turn. According to the bonehead editor who came up with this sensationalist headline, returned veterans are ticking bombs. Oh, and let’s make sure we get to put “SWAT teams” in the first graf under the deck just to raise the temperature a bit. Seriously, folks, this is absurd.
As a point of fact, John Rambo and Travis Bickle were fictional characters. But that doesn’t stop editors from sensationalizing headlines like this. Once again, it’s important to note that our Battleland colleague Cam Ritchie is quoted in the CNN article. ” ‘What we don’t want to do is stigmatize veterans by saying they’re walking time bombs,’ said Elspeth Ritchie, chief clinical officer for the Washington, D.C., Department of Mental Health and a former U.S. Army colonel. ‘They’re not.’ “