Weekly Standard & Others Miss Point About Vets

John J. DiIulio Jr. writes a sensitive discussion of the New York Times’ “Wacko-Vet Myth.” As a distinguished professor of Political Science, specializing in “crime policy and health reform,” one might expect this sensitivity to the questions of care for veterans raised by the New York Times while he, as others, finds the NYT’s failing to put its numbers in proper context.

However, Professor DiIlulio misses two key points: First, the incidence of PTSD is widely exaggerated in the media and by the “industry” that has arisen to profit from it. DiIlulio just accepts the numbers commonly pervasive.

Second, DiIlulio misses that the NYT’s story is upside down. The NYT’s numbers should have led to a story about how well our veterans are doing compared to the non-veteran population, as the incidence rates of violent crimes (or charges of crimes) among veterans is lower and adjustments to civilian life more productive.

The NYT’s remains charged, by its own petard, of misleading "agenda journalism."