Press giving Congress CYA

Republicans think the press is "liberal" and Democrats think FOX runs the flow of news. The younger generation gets most of their news from Facebook and Jon Stewart. Veterans think it is all a bunch of hogwash! It really baffles them when people get paid for being either lazy or stupid. As of today, they don't have a clue which one it is but for them, it isn't about politics. It is about politicians.

The New York Times has this headline: Senior Veterans Affairs Officials to Step Down They didn't seem bothered by the fact they also reported on another VA official forced to step down.

In 2007 The New York Times headline was V.A. Chief to Step Down, Citing Return to Private Life yet no where in the report did they manage to cover what his time in office meant to veterans.

This is from Associated Press

His resignation comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the Pentagon and VA after reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured troops and veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.

It also ends a beleaguered two-year tenure in which Nicholson repeatedly fought off calls for his resignation over the VA's unexpected $1.3 billion shortfall in 2005 that put healthcare at risk; last summer's theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal data in what was the government's largest security breach; and, more recently, the award of $3.8 million in bonuses to senior officials who were responsible for the agency's budget problems.

Walter Reed is a Pentagon-run facility, but charges of poor treatment relating to poor coordination quickly extended to the VA's vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics. The VA also has a backlog of disability payments to injured veterans, with overwhelming delays of 177 days that Nicholson has called unacceptable.

"Secretary Nicholson's resignation should be welcome news for all veterans," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The VA under Secretary Nicholson has been woefully unprepared for the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, consistently underestimating the number of new veterans who would seek care, and failing to spend the money Congress allotted to treat mental health issues."

His departure comes at a critical time. Nicholson most recently headed a presidential task force charged with making immediate improvements to healthcare in which he pledged to take "personal responsibility."

Both Congress and a presidential commission chaired by Bob Dole, former Republican senator from Kansas, and Donna Shalala, former Health and Human Services secretary, are planning to push sweeping changes in how care is administered.

It ended with this

"The fact is, veterans have been right to be disappointed in Jim Nicholson's leadership at VA," said Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, and a 2008 presidential candidate. "It is clear that Secretary Nicholson is leaving the VA worse off than he found it.

Given all that reporters "cover" the last thing we should allow is for them to be doing a massive CYA for members of congress. We've been down his road far too many times already.

Frankly veterans deserved a lot more. Now it seems as if every politician is pulling the "I had nothing to do with it" Sgt. Schultz excuse and the press just gives them more publicity.