E-Mail From Cheryl To Gary Regarding Ft. Bliss
On your 6 o’clock news this evening you showed a segment where “ABC-7 spoke with a woman whose fiance is in Iraq with the 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry at Bliss.” Then you said, “Jessica Schofield spoke to Sgt. Brandon Boger via webcam this afternoon. Sgt. Boger described the attack to her as the worst they’ve seen in 3 years. He says everyone (in his unit) is ‘walking around, seriously grieving.'”
As an Army veteran and former (71Q MOS/PAO) military journalist who is married (going on 24 years) to a career soldier, I was appalled at your lack of consideration and respect for going through proper channels to report a story. This is why the Army has a Public Affairs Office. What you reported as fact on your program, and on your website, is little more than heresay or second hand information; it may also prove to be harmful misinformation to say that everyone in a certain unit is “walking around seriously grieving.” The soldiers of this unit are TRAINED PROFESSIONALS.
This is not to say that they are not personally affected by the horrors of terrorist attacks but I am confident that they will continue to perform their duties despite their grief.
To report second hand information that someone obtained from a web cam in a combat zone is NOT news, it is irresponsible reporting. What next? You find some soldiers family member who managed to exchange information in a chat room with someone who claims to live in Baghdad and says that now an entire Battalion of American soldiers is feeling defeated? Shame on you for resorting to gossip and trying to disguise it as news.
