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Thursday, May 26, 2011

WITN should be ashamed of report on "Preventing Suicides In The USMC"

The ad on the video for this report lasted 9 seconds and the report lasted 33 seconds. 33 seconds? Is that all this report was worth?

Preventing Suicides In The USMC
Marines and Sailors from Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point heard from speakers Wednesday about how to face personal issues after war.
Posted: 9:35 PM May 25, 2011
Reporter: Dave Jordan

Marines and Sailors from Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point heard from speakers Wednesday about how to face personal issues after war.

The program, "Heroes and Healthy Families," featured speakers on topics like substance abuse, post traumatic stress and suicide.

Organizers say that 97-percent of the service members that sit through the program say it's helpful.

In 2011 there have been 66 suspected suicide attempts and 10 suspected suicides in the United States Marine Corps.

Preventing Suicides In The USMC
Don't bother looking for more on this report but there is the link to the video. My rule is to always post just a paragraph or two to honor the work of the reporter and take you to the article so they get credit for the work they do. We need reporters covering all of these stories so if we do not go to the links, the producers and editors won't know they matter. In this case, the coverage was so lacking, what you see above is the whole thing. That's it!

WITN producers did the Marines and their families a huge injustice on this. Why did they bother to send a reporter at all to cover this? How can a story talking about the heartbreak of 10 families of the suspected suicides and 66 Marines suffering so much they tried to end their own lives end up being so unworthy of a full report?

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