The Cleveland Free Times: Duped
Was it the money? Surely he didn’t get paid for this story.
Back on 5 January 2005, Joshua Greene of the Cleveland Free Times (the Cleveland version of the Austin Chronicle) filed this story:
EVER SEEN A SOLDIER STRUGGLE between commitment to his country and to his heart? Ever seen a war rip two lovers apart? Then open your eyes, ’cause it’s happening all around. It’s happening here at Edison’s in Tremont, just a few stools down.
It’s New Year’s Eve 2004, and while midnight brings the toasts and roars, for the couple at the end of the bar, the new year just brings apprehension. The ringing-in of the new year is like an alarm signifying that the day of his departure nears and their time left together evaporates. At 9 p.m. on the first Wednesday of 2005, he leaves for Iraq.
It turns out that Mr. Greene has been taken in by someone. Likely by the newly unmasked Army Reserve Spc. Margabriel Bleuwater “He wasn’t a soldier then, just an aspiring writer filling his head with nonsense, writing poetry in old-school cadence,” describes Mr. Greene. A great deal of that nonsense made it into the Cleveland Free Times.
But, Mr. Greene wants this to be about his feelings:
In my defense, a Navy chaplain called to let me know that even if the soldier didn’t jump out of a plane half as many times as he said, the story held more resonance of the truth soldiers confided in him over his 25 years than he’d heard in some time.
That’s kind of what I mean about subjectivity.
I’d like to believe that my old friend the soldier made everything up, that we’re not at war, that it’s not our hopes for the future and more over there paying for our oil in blood. And maybe I’m a flawed journalist, ’cause as the man packed up his house, I didn’t call him a liar enough as I sat complicit in sending him to war.
As it stands right now, it’s about 30 soldiers against me and a chaplain. Which side are you on?
I guess I’m with the 30 soldiers who would rather see the truth reported. The Free Times? They must be with the 30 soldiers too for here’s their last word on the subject:
We want to thank our readers for their letters and inquiries about factual errors contained in Joshua Greene’s January 5 profile of the Army soldier “Babe”. Following numerous conversations with Army officials and other sources, we have confirmed that the story�s subject made numerous false and exaggerated claims about his background and military experience, and these, unfortunately, went unchecked. To our deep regret, our procedures failed, in this instance, to prevent the publication of false information. This is by no means a matter we take lightly, and we want to assure our readers that every effort is being made to ensure that a lapse of this kind does not happen again in the pages of the Free Times.
MickC @ February 23, 2005