The folks at Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) are at odds with reporters at the Associated Press on what frankly should have been an Opinion piece by the AP writers - NOT reported as News.

Allen Breed is a National Writer at The Associated Press, he also has a fetish for Stolen Valor, or exposing fake Veterans, so it doesn't take long to see through his biased reporting.

Why is Allen Breed, or AP in general, violating its own standards of journalistic integrity by using 'selective' sources with questionable
reliability to advocate the stolen valor issue?

The below story will be posted in two parts:

(1) Mr. Breed's take on how a growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans will potentially scam the U.S. taxpayer out of billions of dollars in VA benefits, and

(2) Posted separately will be the rebuttal from both VCS and Veterans Today News Network asking AP to honor its own standards of journalistic integrity or face potentially hurting the reputation of AP
as a reputable source of news through our contacts in the Veteran, Military Family community, and Congress.

AP reporter Allen Breed uses 'selective sources' or worse yet vague or undefined sources plus precious few examples to prove his thesis that there are selective problems with the VA that make it easy for Veterans to defraud the American people.

He is in violation of AP's journalistic integrity unless of course Mr. Breed makes it clear to AP readers, especially our Veterans and troops that what he has selectively found is his OPINION - not NEWS.

Breed obviously is a half decent journalist, or he would not be a National Writer for the Associated Press, it is not Mr. Breed's opinions and views on Stolen Valor that we at Veterans Today have a
problem with.

It is when any reporter, including one of our own, attempts to pass his or her own personal opinions or views off as accurate, well researched NEWS.

We intend to express this concern to the management at the Associated Press as being anti-Veteran, anti-Soldier/Marine rhetoric sounding more as if our troops should be blamed for their hidden wounds of war by labeling them as fakes. This achieves nothing but the AP exploiting the social stigma of Mental Illness to sell newspapers or increase readership, and it is doomed to failure.

If AP ignores the Veteran and Military Family community, we will appeal to the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees, and mainstream media, to demand that AP and related mainstream reporters be taught how to distinguish between anti-Veteran, anti-Soldier personal opinions and facts when it comes to Veterans and Troops Issues.

Facts apply to the vast majority of Veterans and troops in any case study while rumors, views, and opinions about a 'few' Veterans is just that OPINIONS and VIEWS.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News Network

Extracted from Mr. Breed's Opinionated Report

THIS IS NOT NEWS BUT OPINION, Mr. Breed's opinion!!!

In tide of new PTSD cases, fear of growing fraud

In Allen Breed, and AP Washington D.C. Writer Writer Kimberly Hefling's opinion, there are two problems with Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

No the problems worth journalistic scrutiny and investigation ARE NOT that the VA is a broken system that harms the Veterans it serves, nor is it worth looking into the never ending backlog of Veterans
Claims, not even how dissatisfied or satisfied America's Veterans are with VA care.

AP in fact rarely does an intelligent story on military operations tempo and how it impacts PTSD. When was the last time our readers noted any mainstream media outlet do a decent story on multiple
deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan either negative or positive in nature?

NO, the problems Breed and Hefling see are:

1. A Congress bending under pressure from Veterans Groups to settle Veteran's disability claims mostly in the vets' favor.

(Honestly, if such were the case there would not be so many Veteran's Claims in the Appeal process AND there would not be a significant backlog of VA Claims both worthy discussions that Breed and Hefling ignore - intentionally?).

Note that not one Veterans Service Organization having a PTSD Committee was interviewed by either reporter as a reliable source and expertise in regards to PTSD and Fraud. Not even those who may believe that Vets are faking PTSD.

2. The problem: [in Breed and Hefling's opinion is that] the VA system is dysfunctional.

Like this is something Breed and Hefling are just NOW finding out?

Had they interviewed reliable Veterans Service Organizations and sincere watchdog organizations who have the best interests of all Veterans in mind, Breed and Hefling would have known that the VA is
broken is an UNDERSTATEMENT!

AP is quick to focus on blaming the Veterans.

Instead of zeroing in on the real problems of the VA: delay, deny, until Veterans die, and the significant backlog of VA claims, VA management passing along emails instructing subordinate VA managers to downplay or deny PTSD claims, Breed and Hefling's priority is BLAMING THE VETERAN.

To AP rumors that America's Veterans cannot be trusted is more important than the broken promises to America's Veterans. Not surprising coming from a mainstream media that is not top heavy in military Veterans.

AP's opinion of America's Veterans, and the VA

is that the system is an open invitation for Veterans, who cannot be trusted, to commit fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier.

How ironic, Veterans who not long ago were trusted with our nation's security, Veterans - once Heroes and the jest of Support Our Troop yellow ribbon campaigns NOW cannot be trusted with the American tax payer's money.

(Note AP's opinion is based on a FEW 'selective sources,' and some unidentified Stolen Valor watchdog group more interested in tracking down a few fake Veterans than cleaning up the back log of VA Claims. The use of sources selected primarily for their Stolen Valor views and AP reporters failure to mention who their reliable source really is and what their hidden agenda is places their entire opinion piece and the journalistic integrity of AP in question?)

Of note, the Stolen Valor Act was passed and has been relatively successful at targeting those who do make fake claims of being Veterans or having sustained wounds from combat they never were in or medals they never earned. How far do we need to go with Stolen Valor to feel secure from those few who never served or those among us who exaggerate their service stop stealing it from us?

In the opinion of the Breed and Hefling, both reporters place the reputation of the Associated Press on the line, by saying "some undeserving vets have learned how to game the system, profitably working the levers of sympathy for the wounded and obligation to the troops, and exploiting the sheer difficulty of nailing a surefire diagnosis of a condition that is notoriously hard to define."

There is nothing wrong with this view as an OPINION, even us Veterans know that a few bad apples game the system, or the Stolen Valor Act would never have seen the light of day, however that is not how it is pitched by AP. Breed and Hefling try selling this as a news story of an impending flood, a Tsunami of Veterans ready, willing, and able to game the system on a scale of the natural disasters that hit Haiti and are about to hit the Gulf Coast.

AP uses three, count them, three example to malign Veterans claiming PTSD.

Neither Breed nor Hefling mention how many 'some' Veterans actually are except using three examples selectively chosen to support their opinion (not news story but opinion) plus their selective use of one, just one psychiatrist who they say happened to have worked for the Army

- an Army that BTW has a medical corps with a mission and track record of sending troops back into combat with PTSD that is their mission, it is what they are expected to do - force readiness - period.

This leads to questioning what part, if any, did Dr.Dan G. Blazer who they quote play in the diagnosis of troops having 'personality disorders' as opposed to PTSD, and what is Blazer's relationship to
Sally Satel who most learned Veterans know has a hidden 'partisan' political agenda when she practices medicine or psychiatry. There is not one real PTSD expert within the Veterans' community who does not know who Sally Satel is or where she comes from - the American Enterprise Institute.

Veterans Today News did a background check on Dr. Dan G. Blazer, and there is nothing in Dr. Blazer's bios that indicate he ever worked for the Army, or if he did what exactly did he do for the Army? In fact, there is little to no mention of PTSD in the many books and scientific articles Dr. Blazer has written.

Would or should any experienced journalist conclude that Dr. Blazer was an expert on PTSD, we do not believe so, because most of Dr. Blazer's expertise focus on the topics of depression, epidemiology, and consultation liaison psychiatry, especially with the elderly. Dr. Blazer’s research has focused on the prevalence of physical and mental illness in the elderly. His specialty is Geriatric Psychiatry not PTSD among young or older Veterans or our troops.

BIO Dr. Dan German Blazer, Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. http://www.spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/faculty/blazer.html

BIO Dr. Dan G. Blazer, Duke University Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department/ Geriatric Psychiatry Division. http://www.dukehealth.org/physicians/dan_g_blazer

During Dr. Blazer's many years of experience and education with psychiatry, he is undoubtedly an expert, but his background reflects only one book related to PTSD in which he collaborated, and a focus on older Veterans, but his primary expertise is on mental illness in the elderly not PTSD among young Veterans or our troops.

His claim that PTSD is "among the easiest (psychiatric) conditions to feign" is unreliable, debatable, and does not stand up to the overwhelming STIGMA that anyone facing real PTSD must overcome to admit they have a problem. Dr. Blazer has spent little professional time focusing on PTSD, reflects in his bio no time spent with or in the Army, so why By God would AP use such an unreliable source?.

We at Veterans Today News could find nothing in Dr. Blazer's professional portfolio showing he was in the U.S. Army, or employed by the U.S. Army much less worked as a consultant on PTSD for anyone. We are sure AP could have found much more reliable experts on PTSD than Dr. Blazer. I focused on VVA, but heck go to most any Veterans Service Organization and they either have in house PTSD committees or can send AP reporters to real people in the know.

They also use one, just one, retired VA Claims examiner Mark Rogers without providing very much background on him either. On closer examination it turns out there is no record of Mark Rogers having been a VA Claims examiner and even if he was his ATTITUDE of the lazy, malingering Veteran having only an incentive of seeking care from the VA is for monetary compensation reflects more of a negative bias of Veterans that very few VA employees share.

AP reporters should have vetted Rogers claim to have been a VA Claim Examiner, how long, and so on. I am a former VA employee, four years experience with claims, and I can prove it via my civil service AND military record showing I took a leave of absence for extended military service from the then Veterans Administration.

Unfortunately this hostile attitude toward us Veterans includes professional medical people that have had a hostile opinion toward America's Veterans at least since 1994 when CBS news did an expose on how VA Employees felt about the Veterans they come in contact with. That was way before the current wars began for a younger generation of Veterans.

The hostile environment towards our nation's Veterans,

especially those claiming the hidden and stigmatized wounds of PTSD was laid within the VA system long before the first boots hit the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq.

In an article published circa 1994, VA employees painted a negative picture of those they served forgetting that without Veterans they would have NO JOB. We will post this article as a reflection upon views and hostile attitudes which Mark Rogers, Reporters Breed and Hefling, even Dr. Blazer may have towards US Veterans - a negative attitude that any Veteran who claims PTSD is a malingerer
seeking VA care just for the money.

CBS News Money Watch Hostile Veteran Article of 1994

Writing way back in the Fall or Winter of 1994, CBS Money Watch reporter Douglas Mossman made a lame attempt to blame a downturn in the U.S. economy on - you got it - America's Veterans with the help of VA professional and administrative employees expressing the same attitudes as Mark Rogers.

Check out At the VA, it pays to be sick - Department of Veterans Affairs on CBS Money Watch to see that the negative anti-Veteran attitudes of AP today are nothing new. When America has an economic meltdown, or submits to endless wars, those who do the fighting and dying eventually get to be scapegoats for a society in which less than one percent of the population wants to do what we do.

In January 2009, the same Mark Rogers that AP uses as a reliable source on PTSD and the VA made this statement on blog, "Money and PTSD - Mark Rogers - Jan 21st 2009.

"All of the above comments [in the blog item Why the VA doesn't want to diagnose Iraq War Veterans' PTSD] came from people seeking money for a disability that cannot be objectively tested. The VA cannot possibly tell who has PTSD when so much secondary gain is at stake. Take the money out of the system and then see how many people [claim] PTSD. Offer unlimited treatment but no money and the claims will go away. No? Try to find someone getting PTSD money who would be willing to have his claim viewed by the public, even with his identity disguised. I saw hundreds of these claims working at VA and never saw one that I thought a jury would buy, if there were someone arguing each side."

Speaking of being objective, we at Veterans Today News contend that AP Reporters Breed and Hefling intentionally sought out someone claiming to be a former VA employee with Mark Roger's negative
anti-veteran attitude. Using Mark as a source frankly was anything but objective reporting, and only served to reinforce Breed and Hefling's predisposed hostile, anti-Veteran attitudes. Could this be a reflection of the attitude shared by the Associated Press?

Our point is what did Breed and Hefling base their source credibility on, and why did neither reporter interview reliable representatives from well establish Veterans Service Organizations like Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) who do have PhDs on staff intimately familiar not only with PTSD but the issues of fraud and Stolen Valor. These sources not only would have been credible but certainly not as biased as Mark Rogers.

This is not to say that a few, VERY FEW, Veterans do not scam the VA. However, their numbers are so insignificant to make Breed, Hefling, and the Associate Press appear to be more FOOLISH than Journalists.

Lastly, both AP reporters not only appear to be in violation of the Associated Press Statement of Principles and Journalistic Integrity, but AP owes America's Veterans an apology for publishing such an opinionated piece based on lame to little evidence. The article needs
to be retracted of published as an opinion piece NOT NEWS.

According to the Associated Press Statement of News Values and Principles , what Mr. Breed, and Ms. Hefling selectively researched and wrote has got to be an opinion piece (their shared opinion with those they interviewed for the article) NOT News as reported. Though they did give the full name of their sources, they did not give as much information as needed to identify their sources nor why their sources are credible.

For instance, just having worked as a psychiatrist for the Army or any service does not provide the qualifications to be a credible source unless other Mental Health folks who have worked for the Pentagon or even VA are interviewed for balance and comparison.

What and who Breed and Hefling did provide as sources lacked credibility by not including any report, e-mail, or news release. Instead they took the word [hearsay] of some unidentified Stolen Valor watchdog organization but failed to even provide the name of that unreliable source.

By Ap's Own Standards the AP story fails to live up to those standards

This was a very lengthy story, opinionated, with selective sources that claim to be reliable and are in the opinion of only Breed and Hefling. Such a lengthy story, by Associated Press admission should
have included an extended editor's or writer's note at the end, detailing who was interviewed, research done, and the methodology used.

The Associate Press strives to seek a goal of providing its readers with enough information to have full confidence in a story's accuracy. If republished as the opinion piece that is really is, a few AP
readers might find these AP opinions reliable. However, Breed and Hefling's opinions leave much to be desired in the realm of credibility, and insults the intelligence of America's Veterans and Military Families.

We at Veterans Today News believe that such opinions held by representatives of the Associated Press reflects an instigation and spreading of rumors that betrays our troops in the field by belittling
PTSD, and harms the reputation of AP as being a reliable source for NEWS.

Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) has asked AP to retract the article, and we ask that other Veterans Service Organizations join VCS and Veterans Today News Network in condemning this story as news and asking AP to better educate and monitor their journalists on the difference between writing opinion pieces, spreading rumors, instigation, and reporting NEWS.

The Associated Press needs to spend more time and energy focused on the huge backlog at the VA instead of distracting the public with rumors that Veterans are prone to faking their wounds or war. That VA claims backlog in fact includes a large number of older Vietnam Veterans who have been denied compensation using delaying tactics until most of them have died.

Add to that the increase in VA Claims backlog experienced by Gulf War Veterans of Desert Storm dealing with Gulf War Illness that like Agent Orange most Vietnam Vets were exposed to our government has a track record of downplaying and challenging.

The Associated Press and mainstream media in fact can perform a better service for its readers and American Veterans by researching, investigation, and publishing the positive contributions America's Veterans make to our society, and encouraging Vets to take advantage of the benefits available to us, such as education, training, and yes medical care. This would contribute more to the production of successful Veterans who contribute positively to our national economy, academic intellect, and national well being than maligning us will hostility will ever accomplish. Nothing could be worse for our society than to treat men and women trained in the arms of war with hostility when they come home to war so be forewarned.

What the Associated Press is doing today amounts to the same thing that happened to Veterans of previous wars who claimed illness related to Agent Orange. What next rumors that PTSD is still a conspiracy between liberal doctors in the VA, and a few Veterans Service Organizations to defraud the public with a tsunami of fake Veterans?

AP is part of the old thinking of the liberal media that spread rumors about our Vietnam Veterans, then as now when the war gets to be old news, when standards of victory are misunderstood, or the wars go on with no end in sight. Yes there is social, economic, and political frustration with the politicians [who refused to serve] that send us Veterans in harms way with political decisions WE played no part in -

Our society, including politicians, the media, and yes even among us Veterans, tends to turn on the Veterans and troops fighting and dying in it and abandon our POWs.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News

HAVE A GREAT VETERANS TODAY DAY!

Part Two will include the rebuttal from VCS to AP.