CNN chasing ambulances
Nucsnipe sent us an article from his hometown newspaper about an AWOL soldier turning himself over to authorities;
A former Woodford County man who had been absent without leave from the U.S. Army for half a year turned himself in to Illinois State Police on Monday.
Spc. Don Gartin, 25, was accompanied by a crew from CNN when he walked into the state police station near Metamora on Monday, exiting a short time later in handcuffs with officers. He was taken to the Woodford County jail in Eureka and was expected to be transferred to Army custody on Thursday or Friday.
Gartin did 15 months in Iraq and according to his AKO account, he’s an infantryman in the 1st AD in an infantry battalion – so I’m not going to second-guess his claims that he suffers from PTSD. However, I think CNN acting as if they have the soldiers’ best interests in their collective shriveled little heart is pretty despicable.
Gartin was interviewed via the Internet by CNN a week ago from an undisclosed location, and he later made arrangements for representatives of the television news network to accompany him when he surrendered.
Now, if CNN had met with him and convinced him to turn himself in and got an interview afterward, that would be responsible journalism – but they interviewed him a week before he turned himself in and then accompanied him to the police station as if they were some sort of protection for him. That’s irresponsible.
Journalists have become nothing but ambulance-chasing greaseballs interested in nothing but putting their spin on the news – and that’s the case here.
Category: Media
Let me be the first one to point out that you cannot go AWOL for six months. After being AWOL for thirty day, soldiers are Dropped From the Rolls and classified a deserter.
Gunner! Target! Ambulance in the open…. lawyers dismounted… load flechette!
I don’t know, I can see both sides of this. I like to think that journalists are just there to observe and report – not influence. If the CNN guys talked him into giving himself up, or talked him into NOT giving himself up, either one would be wrong.
If a journalist is reporting on a marijuana grow house, are they ethically required to inform the authorities? If they do, they will never be allowed in another one.
I’m normally not a fan of CNN, but I think they did the right thing here. Their job should be to not get involved. Just stand back and hold the cameras.
CNN’s motives are irrelevant. I don’t know this man’s story, but it may be that CNN was simply the “vehicle” this man used to do the right thing (turning himself in). If PTSD is the problem, may he receive the proper help.
My partner was late picking me up for a business meeting this morning. He saw a Marine returning from A-stan (my partner said the look on the Marine’s mother’s face gave it away) and stopped to give them some money to take the family out for dinner to celebrate. How come CNN doesn’t cover stuff like that instead of this crap? If this guy has PTSD, then I hope he gets the proper help, but CNN does not appear much interested in that. Being on national television turning himself in was not in this guys best interest.
I know this man and although he did desert, he is a good man with lots of problems. Unfortunately he now has many more. I believe that he had ulterior motives in contacting CNN. I feel that he felt that his story may help others who are in or have been in his situation. In some way he was reaching out to them saying that surrendering is the honorable thing to do and that admitting that you need help is not a bad thing either. As scary as the unknown is, having CNN there was a way to make what he had to do real and helped him follow through. CNN journalists were just doing their jobs and showing the not so nice effects that combat has on those fine Americans who risk their lives to protect us.
I do not care about any of your opinions (favorable or not), your birth given right as a human is to have your own opinion… and my birth given right is that I dont have to give to terds in a bucket about your opinion. The issues I face are real and turning myself in was a decision helped realized by the ones I love and care about, NOT CNN. The purpose of the media’s role through all this was solely for the people who might find themselves in the same situation.
Nichole, you say you know Don. If you know him, then you know that he did not contact CNN.