THE EDITORIAL IN TODAY'S PAPER:
Setting the record straight after some difficult lessons learned I read Clarence Lee's story Friday. It sounded like a great story in our afternoon planning meeting, when we discussed the next day's paper. It was, and we featured it prominently as part of our Veterans Day package on Saturday's front page.
Unfortunately, it wasn't true.
The first e-mail came in Saturday morning, from a woman in Arizona, who wrote, "I think you'd better do fact checking on the 'Vietnam Veteran Full of Life Despite Nine Months of Torture' story by Ray Westbrook. I can't find either of the names discussed in the story on any Vietnam Casualty/POW lists."
More e-mails came in Sunday and Monday ... some ripping us for allowing this to happen.
Terry Greenberg
I explained to these folks ... who contacted us from a number of different states ... that we had been given the idea from a respected member of our community who had given us good tips in the past. If it was not true, we would set the record straight. Once we told them that, these folks immediately offered to help us get the real story.
In the back of my mind, I hoped Lee could provide some proof to show his story was real. But he could not. As you have already read in our front-page story today, he told Ray Westbrook he was sorry and would never do it again.
I would hope we would never again be duped.
But how could this happen, and why didn't we use databases that could have confirmed Lee's story?
Ray Westbrook has been writing stories for 46 years. Karen Brehm, our assistant managing editor for news and features, has been in the business for 32 years, and I've got 29 years at daily newspapers. Ray wrote the story; Karen and I read it. So did others.
We sat down to discuss this Monday morning. In all those years we'd never had a veteran lie to us - that we know of. It never crossed our minds that someone would do this. It never crossed our minds that we'd have to check.
I learned a lot Monday, especially from Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network in Missouri. Apparently there are more and more Americans who say they were prisoners of war.
Yes, we were deceived. But we also allowed ourselves to be used, and I take the responsibility for that. There's an old line in our business: "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out." To readers and veterans, you have my apology.
Fool me once, shame on you ... fool me twice ...
If I'm angry about anything, though, it's this: Whenever I now hear a veteran tell a story, I'll wonder if it's true. That's sad.
One final thought: Some of the people who sent e-mails about this said we were courageous for following up and fixing this. That's not courage ... that's simply telling the truth ... something we thought we did on Saturday.
Courage? That's what real POWs and veterans have showed this country for more than 200 years.
uhhhh - let me guess: this guy is a Democrat.
Well, he sure was a good storyteller. His description of Chinese water torture has stayed in my head all week.
'Lyndel Evans wrote the following in an e-mail: "If Lee was a Marine Corps helo pilot, he was the only one ever. The Marine Corps, to my knowledge, and I retired from 30 years in the Navy, has never had warrant officers as pilots, period. There were flying sergeants during World War II, but no flying gunners. The Army has always had and still has warrant officer helicopter pilots." '
Lyndel needs to check his facts. CWOs were pilots in the Corps. Best pilot in the 53 RAG was a Gunner.
Thanks for following up on this, WTW. It's sad that some people pretend to be something they're not.
I think this will become even more common as the boomer generation pushes into the geriatric years. Sad, old, lonely people looking for attention.
I suspect it may actually be a historically common human failing, only back then, say after the Crimean war, there wasn't an easy way to check the story teller's veracity.
I've met quite a few phonies at the local VFWs and American Legions in recent years. Generally these are "Vietnam Vets" who claim to have been "Airborne-Ranger-Green Beret-SEAL-Force Reconnaissance-Commandos!!!" They speak enough lingo that I'm sure they are in fact veterans, but their stories about their special operations exploits are too full of holes. I don't publicly berate them, because they do seem to have served, but I suspect that they were in a less glamorous field than the special operations background that they claim. I usually just inform others my reasons for skepticism.
thanks for the followup
Ping!