There's nothing new about the military or the government using the media for their own purposes if they can, for example the re-staging of the flag raising on Iwo Jima for the photographers, or John Kerry's own comment on his award of the Medal of Honor "Nixon needed a hero..." (In Viet Nam us army grunts had a joke to the effect that a Marine Corps " re-enforced rifle platoon" was the same as a regular one except it had two extra photographers and a sound man.) I really don't know if if trying to "use" the media is a good thing or a bad thing. It seems to have helped the war effort during WWII.

And it isn't all that hard to do. The media thrives on sensationalism, and is more than happy to exaggerate the hell out of a story in order to sell more newspapers or get more air time (The Blizzard of the Century with theme music) or to be the first with the inside story, true or not.

The fact that story of "The Rescue of Private Lynch" has been wildly exaggerated by the media and helped along by the military shouldn't come as a big surprise. But I really despise the fact that such things happen and feel very sorry for Ms Lynch who like it or not is caught in the middle.

O'Meara