It was a battle of behemoths: The Marine Corps and The Associated Press, the world’s biggest news agency, got into a tiff recently. They sparred over an AP story quoting a report written within the Department of Defense that argued that hundreds of Marines had been killed or wounded because the Corps had “refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders” for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) trucks. In the back and forth, both sides employed a bit of spin, but central questions remained unanswered.

A letter writer caught Stars and Stripes violating its own policy. Staff Sgt. Amanda K. Castro, from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, wanted to know why the paper identified an alleged victim of sexual assault in a recent story. Stripes and many other papers refrain from such identifications, to avoid any stigma that may attach to the victim.

In most cases, the person not so identified is a woman. In this case, it was a man, who alleged that a colleague was harassing him. There was another twist: The accusing person previously had been charged with sexual assault himself in a case that was ultimately dismissed.

A Feb. 10 article by a Stars and Stripes reporter, written from Iskandariyah, Iraq, inspired two letters to the editor. Both expressed shock. One writer was shocked that Stripes would publish a report that supposedly made American soldiers look bad. The other was shocked by what the soldiers did.

I am stymied. How do I defend the publication in so many newspapers, including Stars and Stripes, of a photograph of a dead body, when I myself find it so painful to look at. And yet – this is the dilemma – looking at it is hugely hypnotic and poignant for me, and for so many others. In the end I can only commiserate with those offended by the publication, and at the same time take refuge, if not comfort, in the circumstance that makes the photograph so important to me. Not only to me, I am sure, but to newspeople everywhere who share the circumstance of a common profession with the dead man.

Shame on you. And you, and you and you. It's your fault that the press is thought to be biased, and your fault that you refuse to cooperate with what opinion polls say you should do.

Roy Peter Clark, a famous journalism writing coach at the Poynter Institute, posted a column Jan. 30 titled "The Public Bias against the Press" It said bias in the press was largely in the eye of the beholder. Outside forces, including celebrity coverage and the rants of talk show hosts, Clark said, have created a situation where the "public bias against the press is a more serious problem for American democracy than the bias (real or perceived) of the press itself."

Oh, to be young and foolish again — then I might consider going to places like Coyote Ugly, the Baumholder, Germany, bar highlighted by a Jan. 24 review in Stars and Stripes’ Europe edition. But my tastes in entertainment aren’t the point. There apparently are plenty of young folks — some no doubt foolish, some not — who dig the establishment. A letter writer, Staff Sgt. Arlene Madden, thought Stripes was more than foolish in running the article, which she said seemed to “condone excessive drinking and illicit behavior.”

Far Side, the funky cartoon by Gary Larson, is -- was -- one of my favorites. Same for Roger, who sent an e-mail, from Spain (judging from his e-mail address). "Some time ago, the newspaper stopped publishing [Far Side] on a daily basis and only showed it on Sunday," he wrote.

"That was a disappointment as many of us enjoy his humor. Recently, the newspaper has stopped it on Sunday as well. Any chance of ever seeing it again?"