Heard
the good news from Bill
Densmore that MGP is
planning to be in Memphis next month conducting sessions in
concert with the Nat’l Conference for Media Reform! Wondering who’s going? I (and
perhaps one more colleague from ePluribus Media) am tentatively planning to be there. And I’m bringing
my camera. :o)
Have
been enjoying the discussions on the list the past few months; apologies for
not contributing more.
I’ve been busy since summer writing my first book, Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder and America’s
Returning Troops. It’s slowly coming online (on Amazon.com
already…yikes).
My
publisher is asking me now to line up some of my 'big name' high-roller,
high-profile journalist and blogger contacts asking if any might honor me and
my humble work with the offer of a brief quote, jacket blurb, blog post, full book
review, or – heck, even any awards you may want to shower on us. Bill has
already honored me by giving the green light to send him out a review copy. Would anyone else care to be included on my list?
Manuscript
copies will be ready in a few weeks; bound galley copies in about 6 or so. Where may I mail your copy?
Finally,
combat PTSD has exploded in the media this week with NPR’s
Fort Carson investigation. Related to this, ePluribus Media and I have ramped up our work again on the PTSD
Timeline, tracking incidents of OEF/OIF combat-related PTSD. The project,
which began in 2005, has caught the attention of Sen. Kerry’s office and
others as well. (See WireTap, FOX News, and USAToday
for more buzz on what we’ve been doing.)
I’ll
end this long-winded email (I mean, you don’t hear from me for months!)
with one of the most touching recent mentions, from a blogger named D-Day. I
met him briefly at YearlyKos last year; it sums up a lot of the feelings many
of us CJs have out here about the work we’re trying to do:
While saddened and disgusted by this tragedy happening
to so many of our troops, I was also happy this was finally getting the
attention it deserved. And that's because I first learned about PTSD online,
most notably from ilona at ePluribusMedia,
a collaborative media community that sprung up in 2005. The media still
perceives bloggers as wild and crazy yahoos ranting and raving from their
bedrooms, but ePluribusMedia is actually dedicated to
investigative research and issue advocacy at the level of citizen journalism.
These reports on PTSD, which I'm sure most listeners today found shocking, I
already knew about because of the great work being done in the blogosphere.
It really is changing the model of who are the
gatekeepers of the news, who decides what matters and what doesn't. I'm proud
to have met Ilona Meagher, an ordinary American who decided to
look into this issue from a nonpartisan perspective and raise awareness. She's
written a book on this subject called Moving
a Nation To Care, and if this interests you I'd suggest you pick it
up.
I'm not necessarily a blog triumphalist, but it does
consistently amaze me what a few committed people can do.
