In a letter-to-the-editor, Capt. Matthew Shannon said Stars and Stripes was irresponsible for picking up a Los Angeles Times review of a rock concert without editing out just one word. That word, in the lead paragraph of the story about the band Metallica, was methamphetamine, as in: "Imagine the smell of barbecue and methamphetamine under the Texas summer sun." There was no other reference to the dangerous drug.
Capt. Shannon said the drug "should never be glorified as a common theme to any concert, anywhere, or with any band." One can sympathize with him. He is, after all, an Army social worker who treats soldiers with drug abuse problems. So in no way can it be said that his reaction was "wrong."
The problem is that the media is forever going to report what it sees and sometimes that will have unintended consequences. An article that deals with sex may excite someone with a sex compulsion. One about violence in the streets could arouse a psycopath.
The reporter writing about the concert was setting the scene for the reader. He found something that was not unheard-of among rockers. Any repercussion among recipients of his information was not his to assess, nor that of an editor who decides to use the story in the newspaper. Otherwise, newspeople become social engineers and that cannot be their job.
CAPT. MATTHEW SHANNON DESERVES A BETTER RESPONSE
I agree with the opinion of the Ombudsman - as far as it goes. But the issues raised by Capt. Matthew Shannon deserve follow-up. I'm afraid the published response comes very close to smugly "blowing him off."
If the problem of methamphetamine abuse among young people, including those serving in the military services, is serious and widespread, it deserves some serious investigative reporting by Stars & Stripes.
First, of course, there is a little credibility problem with the original story. The National Institutes of Health says methamphetamines are odorless. Check it out at this URL:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/InfoFacts/methamphetamine.html
So, just how is it possible to accurately describe an event by referring to the smell of something that is odorless?
Getting back to the more fundamental issue, it turns out that methamphetamine abuse is, in fact, a growing one among young people under the age of 25 - an age group that is very important to the military.
You can find the details here:
http://www.methamphetamine.org/html/special-pops-adolescents.html
Capt. Matthew Shannon and the National Security of the United States of America deserve a more thoughtful and substantive response than what he have seen so far.
REG CROWDER
Freelance Financial and Investment Writer
London, England and Brittany, France
http://www.journalistdirectory.com/journalist/TgTQ/REG-CROWDER
Not the best choice of words
As some one who is communicating with the public he should have chosen his words better. At the same time, if you have ever been to a Metallica concert you may be under the impression that most of the crowd is on one drug or another. Its really not a far reach if you know what I'm talking about. On the other hand one shouldn't be unprofessional in the field of communicating with the public. One shouldn't generalize about a subject as that all the same.
Greg
Narconon vista Bay