A tale of two West Virginia soldiers: one named Jessica, one named Lynndie. Both are on opposite sides of the propaganda war. One is a hero, one is a monster. No, wait - actually, one is a fraud, one was just following orders. No wait, one is perky and blonde, the other is kind of butch and ugly. Now I'm all confused. Help me Metafilter, you're my only hope.
posted by PrinceValium on May 11, 2004 - 20 comments

Andy Griffith Beats Jessica Lynch Interview for Viewers
Well sure, it was for the Andy Griffith Reunion Show. What was ABC thinking putting Diane Sawyer and Jessica "Selective Amnesia" Lynch up against Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea?
posted by fenriq on Nov 12, 2003 - 23 comments

Private Jessica Lynch says "The military used me!" Lynch, now honorably discharged and with a book coming out, told Diane Sawyer in a "Primetime" interview to air Tuesday that the military lied to the press and used her for propaganda purposes. This was reported in May by Robert Scheer of the L.A. Times, who was called "unamerican" by Bill O'Reilly and personally called a liar by the Pentagon. Once more, we've been lied to by our government, but something tells me that the frogs ain't gonna march anytime soon.
posted by insomnia_lj on Nov 7, 2003 - 75 comments

Today's big bombshell: Private Jessica Lynch reports that she was raped. But here's the kicker. In the biography, she confesses that she has no memory of the incident. The citation comes from "medical records." But even author Rick Bragg notes that the records "do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead." Serious allegations against her captors or trumped up charges that fail to pinpoint the perpetrator? (It's also worth noting that Bragg was suspended from the New York Times when he relied on the work of stringers and interns. Is it possible that a similar approach was utilized with these medical records?)
posted by ed on Nov 6, 2003 - 61 comments

Saving Private Lynch From Misinformation.
John Fasano (screenwriter of such classics as Darkness Falls, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, and Another 48 Hours) offers a very interesting caveat regarding his in-production film about the icon apparent (or not) of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This begs the question: With a public undoubtedly waiting for this made-for-TV movie to know "what really happened to Jessica" and such a blurred line between truth and propaganda, is this responsible movie-making? Many Americans turn to Hollywood for their history lessons, so I have to wonder...
posted by grabbingsand on Oct 8, 2003 - 21 comments

The CBS News American Idol Power Hour. Viacom, owner of networks CBS and MTV among many others, is aggresively pushing lucrative bribes offers for Private Jessica Lynch to get her on CBS News, including the possibility of her own video-hosting program on MTV and special editions of TRL. Corporate consolidation the way it is, are we in an era where synergy allows news-media-owning companies to offer not just material profit but flat-out media iconization in exchange for a good story? To put it another way: have we gone beyond using the news to promote entertainment owned by the same company to using entertainment as the currency to flat-out buy the news?
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Jun 16, 2003 - 12 comments

The alleged truth about how Private Jessica Lynch was saved.
This is a pretty amazing story, coming originally from the BBC and now a front page story on the Guardian. There's a program on it on BBC on Sunday.

Story courtesy of Karlin Lillington, where I picked it up.
posted by tomcosgrave on May 16, 2003 - 10 comments

So who really did save Private Jessica? An interesting backside to military propaganda.
posted by the fire you left me on Apr 21, 2003 - 39 comments

Sending the pregnant to fight Saddam: The dramatic rescue of GI Jessica brings up the issue [preemptive post justification]. This article has a nice historical overview of women's role in the military, in the form of a time-travel dialogue between today's soldier and a Vietnam era grunt.
posted by hairyeyeball on Apr 3, 2003 - 22 comments