Before they made NFL cheerleader famous reporters missed arrest

The country learned of a beautiful Iraq veteran. Megan Welter went to Iraq, came back home and became a cheerleader for the Arizona Cardinals. The press was all over her story. The problem is she had been arrested on domestic violence the same month the press made her famous.

War veteran NFL cheerleader arrested on domestic violence charges
Megan Welter was arrested on July 20 on charges of alleged assault, disorderly conduct and criminal damage
USA Today
By NATE SCOTT
August 2, 2013

Arizona Cardinal cheerleader and Iraq War veteran Megan Welter, who we profiled earlier this week, was arrested in July on assault charges.

On July 20, Welter made a 911 call saying that she and her boyfriend had been in a physical fight. Both of them had been drinking heavily, and Welter claimed the argument had turned physical.

According to the Scottsdale police report, when officers arrived on the scene, they saw no signs physical contact on Welter’s body. Her boyfriend was also able to show the officers video he had shot on his cell phone of the couple’s altercation.

“People make mistakes, no one is perfect. I honestly want the best for her and I hope that this doesn’t take away from the good things that she has done for both the NFL, as well as the service to our country. People seem to only remember the bad and it is easy to point fingers while standing on the outside. Now with that said, violence is never the answer and I honestly hope that this can be a learning experience for her and everyone else.”
read more here

This morning news sites and the blog world are pushing this story. Why? Is it because she attacked her boyfriend or is it because she has been made famous for something else?

While USA Today was publishing the story of the arrest on Friday, the Christian Post had this story.

Megan Welter, NFL Cheerleader and Iraq War Veteran
'It Was the Right Thing to Do'

"The war was going on at the time when I graduated college," she explained. "I wanted to take a job that was going to meaningful, so I decided the Army."

After completing basic training, Welter decided on Officer Training School, which would give her a "100 percent chance" of going to Iraq, she said in a 2012 video profile for the Cardinals.

"I thought it was the right thing to do. I was deployed to Joint Base Belad which is about an hour north of Baghdad. At first, it was, it was scary you know, but … it's what I signed up to do. It was definitely a sink-or-swim type of experience," she said. Welter was responsible for maintaining communications for one of the largest Army bases in the country.

So which person is Welter? She is all the above. She is complicated and trying to do the right thing for the right reasons but she is not perfect. That is the point. None of us are perfect and that includes reporters pushing a story they think will get a lot of attention but not bothering to check out everything that can be learned about the person they write about.

So we are left with going from this Iraq veteran goes from combat to cheerleading to the headline of her arrest. Would have been better if the reporters bothered to figure out what happened before the interview and someone we celebrated was taken down in a matter of a day.

Celebrated Cardinals cheerleader arrested after alleged assault caught on video
by 3TV
Video report by Javier Soto
Posted on August 1, 2013