Telling it Like it Isn't

The folks at TruthOut.org are a real hoot. One of their favorite tactics for gulling the gullible is to run a headline guaranteed to disturb the unwary and to follow it up with a story that does nothing to warrant the headline. A recent example was a story titled Experts See Military Draft as Inevitable which they borrowed from Delawareonline.com.

The story at the site gives no support at all for the headline. There is much talk among politicos and others about how we need to grow the force, to be sure, but a draft is hardly the only way to accomplish that. The closest the article comes to living up to the headline is this passage:

As a result, McNeil and other anti-war activists such as Sally Milbury-Steen, executive director of the Wilmington-based peace organization Pacem in Terris, said they think a draft is on the horizon.

"I think there's a very good chance of a military draft in the next two years. We have soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and now they're heating up the rhetoric on Iran. Where else will the soldiers come from?" Milbury-Steen asked.

Whether McNeil and Steen are experts on military matters we can't say, though we have our doubts, but quoting their opinion that they "think" a draft is "on the horizon" and that they "think there's a very good chance" is hardly the same as saying that reinstating the draft is inevitable.

Maybe TruthOut.org should consider changing its name to something a little more precise. Let us suggest TruthOuttheWindow.org.