Fox News buries the lead on Walter Reed

If you ever want to see a case of purposefully burying the lead of a story, look no further than the House panel on the Walter Reed scandal. Here are the first three paragraphs from CNN and Fox News. Guess which one is the Administration’s mouthpiece.

CNN (Lead story)

Witness slams ‘nightmares’ of Army medical system

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Witnesses told a House panel Monday that wounded U.S. soldiers are forced to struggle against a nightmarish and untrustworthy Army medical system which leaves veterans stranded in unfit conditions.

Two Iraq war veterans and the wife of a third gave heartbreaking, at times stunning, tales of neglect at the now notorious Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The panel was convened in the wake of a scandal triggered by The Washington Post’s detailing of problems at the hospital.

Annette McLeod, wife of Cpl. Wendell McLeod, who received an injury to his head in the war, said her husband “has been through the nightmares of the Army medical system.

“I’m glad that you care about what happened to my husband after he was injured in the line of duty. Because for a long time, it seemed like I was the only one who cared. Certainly, the Army didn’t care. I didn’t even find out that he was injured until he called me himself from a hospital in New Jersey.”

“This is how we treat our soldiers — we give them nothing,” she said. “They’re good enough to go and sacrifice their life, and we give them nothing. You need to fix the system.”

Fox News (fourth story, with “Cheney has blood clot in leg” leading the way)

Wounded Soldiers Detail Poor Living Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

WASHINGTON — Wounded soldiers told lawmakers on Monday that the Walter Reed Army Medical Center gives troops “less than what they deserve” in care and quality of living conditions to recover from traumatic injuries suffered in the line of duty.

“Soldiers get less than they deserve from a system seemingly designed and run to cut the costs associated with fighting this war,” Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s national security panel. Shannon was injured by a gunshot wound to the head during a firefight with insurgents in Iraq in 2004.

“The really sad thing is that surviving veterans from every war we’ve every fought detail the same basic story. A story about neglect, lack of advocacy and frustration with military bureaucracy,” Shannon said.

“We have let some soldiers down,” said Army Undersecretary Peter Geren, who will become acting secretary of the Army on Friday. “And working with the Congress and the leadership of the Army, all the way down to the lowest ranking civilian or uniformed military, we’re going to fix that problem. In fact, we’re in the process of fixing it.”

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., said Congress will get to the bottom of reported problems to give soldiers the care and living conditions they deserve.

“This is absolutely the wrong way to treat our troops,” Tierney said.

To recap:

CNN: “Nightmarish. Heartbreaking. Scandal.”

Fox News: “Wounded vets get less than they deserve. It happens every war. They’ll fix it.”

–WKW