Jessica Lynch: PR Stunt for the Pentagon
             On Sunday, March 23, 2003, Capt. Troy King, commander of the 507th, led his unit off-course in Iraq at 1:00 am. At 7 am, after realizing his mistake, King attempted to turn around as the convoy was ambushed by enemy fire. During the ambush, some US soldiers escaped, some got rescued, and some get insured, or worse, killed. Of the soldiers who weren't fortunate enough to get away, Jessica Lynch is the most famous. After being injured in the ambush, Jessica was taken to Saddam General Hospital. This is where the story becomes complex. The Pentagon/US Government says that she was riddled with bullet holes and stab wounds and tortured for information, and the Iraqi doctors say that she had some broken bones, but wasn't mistreated. One side says "daring rescue," the other side, "staged assault." After a made-for-TV movie was shown on national TV, Jessica Lynch spoke out in an interview about the events that had transpired in March, saying that the Pentagon's capitalization on her rescue was "wrong."
             It seems that both stories seem plausible. Both stories end with Jessica being taken from the hospital by US soldiers. So why was the media hype for Jessica Lynch tremendous? Why didn't the papers and news shows talk about Pfc. Patrick Miller, the man who saved his own life, as well as the lives of others, including Jessica Lynch? The explanation is both simple and upsetting: the media wants to sell us certain images, not the truth or the whole story. Had Jessica Lynch been male, the story may not have gotten the same play simply because the image wouldn't have been just right.
             Since the media is our primary connection with the world outside our lives, most of us believe that what we are told is not only the truth, but also is the most important information. This is far from true. The media feeds the public with information that sells. Because...