Bruce Crandall

Bruce Crandall was awarded the Medal of Honor this week. Was a big deal made of it in your paper? The Medal of Honor is our nation's highest honor but did a story on Bruce Crandall make your front page? If not - what was deemed more important "news"? I think the placement of this story shows where the priorities are in the newspaper business.

Here's a link to a story on Crandall. I had to learn about this story via a blog. And people wonder why nobody reads papers anymore.

http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=13112

 

Wasn't this the guy Greg Kinnear played in We Were Soldiers?

And why did it take more than four decades to make Crandall a recipient? Did Dubya just catch the movie on DVD?

 

Of the 3,459 Medals of Honor bestowed upon soldiers by the U.S. government ... only 1 has been presented to a member of the Coast Guard:

Douglas A. Munro, Signalman First Class, 27 Sept 1942, off Point Cruz (Guadalcanal)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Albert_Munro

 

Yeah - the Greg Kinnear character was Crandall. His actions happened 42-years ago. That's 8 President's. Bush was the only one to honor the man. I guess because it was Bush who did it - that makes it OK for the media to ignore the honor bestowed upon Bruce Crandall.

 

Hell, it didn't even make A1 in his hometown paper. Tacoma put it on B1. In all fairness, tho, the AP story was absolute crap. So unless your paper subscribes to McClatchy or LAT-WP wires, you were s.o.l. McClatchy had a great leadup piece to the ceremony:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/galloway/16715229.htm

but then it should have been good -- the writer co-authored "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young."

WaPo also had a terrific advancer:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/25/AR2007022501161.html

Trivia point: Crandall's was the third Medal of Honor awarded out of the Battle of Ia Drang.

 

NBC covered it.