Think Before Forwarding That Inspiring E-Mail

The Internet is a glorious technological leap forward that has brought the world a host of blessings. Let's stipulate that at the outset. But one of its many downsides is the persistence of the e-mail glurge: the tug-your-heartstrings story that will be passed on from one mailing list to the next until, apparently, the heat-death of the universe.

The most vexatious are not the clear fakes, but those that mix truth with misrepresentation and end up forcing common sense into a shotgun wedding with pure nonsense. For instance, last week these offices received this missive:

"Ths real NEWS!

"Ed Freeman

"You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in . . . .

"Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

"He's coming anyway.

"And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

"Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

"And, he kept coming back . . . 13 more times . . . And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

"Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID . . . May God rest his soul . . . .

"I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his 'girlfriend'

"Shame on the American Media"

THAT'S an inspiring story -- no doubt about it.

Trouble is, Ed Freeman died in August, 2008. And he actually got a lot of news coverage -- from CNN, ABC News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, and many other outlets. Freeman received news coverage when he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 . . . and in 2002, when he was represented in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers." And again a few weeks ago, when the House of Representatives named a post office building after him.

Do Freeman's heroics deserve even more attention? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that it is hard to say enough good things about men such as he. And no, in the sense that once you have said those things in 2001 and 2002 and again in 2008, it's not clear what is gained by continuing to say them, at least in the daily paper or on the nightly newscast.

Ed Freeman's heroics are certainly more uplifting than the Chris Brown/Rihanna story. But the Chris Brown/ Rihanna story contains previously unknown information, and therefore constitutes "news." Freeman's heroics do not.

And if we are to retell the story of Ed Freeman continually as news, though it is no longer news, then why should we not also retell the story of, say, Sgt. Alvin York, the most decorated hero of WWI? Or of Marine legend Chesty Puller? Or the many other heroes whose service to the nation deserves our deep and abiding thanks? Those stories should continue to be told -- in the history books. But the daily media?

When heroism happens, news media report it. Remember Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, the U.S. Airways pilot who saved the lives of the 150 passengers aboard his Airbus A320 when it crashed into the Hudson in January? For a while there he was on every front page, home page, and newscast. But would you expect to read about him every week, month after month -- year after year?

THE MEDIA do occasionally retell tales of heroism: in retrospective human-interest stories, in obituaries, and on occasions such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Chesley Sullenberger will have another moment in the sun at year's end, when news organizations recap the top stories of 2009. And when he goes to his final reward. And perhaps a few times in between.

Yet people who never would have heard about Chelsey Sullenberger in the first place, were it not for the media's coverage of his heroics, someday might pass around e-mails accusing the media of shamefully ignoring Sullenberger's story.

It's not that they're lying, mind you. They just swallow it whole and pass it on. They don't make any effort to check.

The traditional media -- what's left of them, anyway -- do.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Contact A. Barton Hinkle at (804) 649-6627 or .