Bedding Email Blowup

Nation-wide criticism has exploded after release of story regarding a Waukesha company's interaction with an Soldier in Iraq. PeaceAction-WI headquartered in Milwaukee has received dozens of calls , hundreds of emails and requests for interviews from across the nation.

The initial story ran on local FOX6 news and the Milwaukee Journal and included a PeaceAction-WI spokesperson who then came in the crosshairs of people nation-wide. Julie Enslow of PeaceAction-WI voiced her concern for the troops and her disappointment regarding the inappropriateness of the email. She then urged viewers to continue supporting the troops by working to find a peaceful resolution that brings our troops home now. Sounds good to me, who can argue with that?

Well apparently alot of people, not just locally, but across the country. The phone lines and email boxes have been burning with disrespectful citizens expressing their disapproval of the discount store's email... to PeaceAction???

Are people so whipped up into a frenzy by our crazy media propaganda that the mere mention of a Peace organization can get them to turn off their ears and hack up a poison response?? I don't get it?

Its true that the mainstream media has been favoring the marching instructions from on high since the war began. There has been little journalism locally or nationally that hasn't been supportive of government talking points and camera angles. Haven't we all seen the staged servicemen asking pre-rehearsed questions? Haven't we heard of the militaristic restrictions given citizens seeking audience with their elected leaders when they speak locally? Why even the act of embedding reporters has proven bad for objective journalism.

Whether its a t-shirt or bumper sticker, a name on a list or an affiliation like the ACLU or Amnesty International, Free speech has been under assault for four years, and the battle fatigue has set in on ordinary citizens to the point where they seem to lash out first, and think later.... I guess its not much different than out president's war policy, but that's no excuse.

Unless these senseless hate mails have another purpose. Perhaps the frenzied behavior of people is just what our leaders want to test. What if it served as a barometer for public sentiment- float the story out there like a weather balloon. See which way the wind is blowing.

Interviewing Peace Action and a vet who collects donations helped to humanize the story, but was the reason for the story to inform, or to get a sense of the community's outrage? - Outrage to the story and company, as well as outrage to the war and those who oppose it- even to those who've stood against the war, and even if their opinion was in support of the position many of the hostile callers took.

How often have we seen this in recent media coverage—calling Barak Obama - Osama, naming Rep Foley a Democrat when referring to his gross abuses with young pages? These acts of misdirection whether intended or accidental, on top of the media's propensity to repeat views rather than report the news... has gotten people mixed up and angry.