Courtney coverage: Keep it off page one

Can the Gazette-Times put the updates on murder suspect Joel Courtney somewhere other than on the front page?

The coverage that this odious criminal is receiving can only encourage others as deranged as he to attempt to garner similar notoriety.

I do not argue that the community should not be kept apprised of the progress of justice in this case.

However, therein lies a difficult journalistic determination.

Should it be accented to show that justice can and will be served and that the family can count on some small solace to comfort them in their loss?

Or is this simply sensationalism, pandering to a voyeuristic public and exacerbating the family’s wounds?

The public interest, the cause of justice, and consideration of the family’s feelings in this and other cases like it would argue that the story about this case should belong on page 6, below the fold until the perpetrator is judged and sentenced for this abominable crime.

Martin R. Mulford, Corvallis

Caring for elderly can be exhausting

What a lot of hooey in your story regarding elder care in Corvallis (“Exploring options for elder care,” April 13).

I’ve had nothing but experiences of desperation, exhaustion and frustration. All of those emotions in attempting to get the well-deserved services for my World War II U.S. Navy veteran husband who now has dementia.

This vet gave his time and effort in time of war, reconstructed his life in order to take advantage of the GI Bill and his education.

He is now 81 (I am his second wife, 65 years old) and I have never had to work so hard as I did with the social services program and American Veterans Association for his care and medical assistance.

Hours on the phone double and triple checking regarding care and prescriptions. Asking who does what, how can requirements be met, etc.

There is so much red tape to cut through, so many documents to provide, so many forms to complete and I must keeping my own paper trail in case I have to produce things again.

There are too many obstacles for the caregiver to wade through. My husband would not be so well cared for in the adult foster home if I too had dementia, if I too was 81 years old and not able to comprehend or cope with the paper maze.

The American public deserves better and your article doesn’t even scratch the surface of the difficulties to be faced for placement and care of our loved ones.

Susan Rohloff, Corvallis

Media is ignoring the war in Iraq

The recent controversy regarding coverage of peace activists occurs in a wider context in which the Gazette-Times’ response contributes to a disturbing pattern in the national media.

Since August, when Gen. Petraeus delivered his report on the surge, media coverage of Iraq declined from “15 percent of news output … to just 3 percent in February,” according to BBC analysts; and media watchdogs Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting observed a decline in cable news coverage from 24 percent to 1 percent in the same period.

Perhaps lack of coverage underlies many citizens’ confusion about the war, as expressed by Ellen Buford (“Just why is the U.S. fighting Iraq War?” Letters, April 14).

It may well be responsible for fewer than one-in-three Americans being able to estimate the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq.

This paucity of coverage is one motivation for Eric Greiten’s recent NPR commentary.

After a harrowing narrative of surviving a bomb blast, Iraq veteran and former Navy SEAL Greiten concluded, “Today, soldiers still find themselves literally wearing the blood of their brothers. It’s not too much to ask you to keep paying attention.”

Are only those old, tired activists paying attention?

That might explain why the fastest growing veterans organization is Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Among a citizenry that deems their daily sacrifices and the deaths of over 4,000 of their brothers and sisters uninteresting, and ignored by media incapable or unwilling to pay attention - much less offer background or analysis — those vets see who’s really got their backs.

How about it, G-T: Is it too much to ask?

Maynard Freemole, Corvallis

U.S. should boycott Olympics in China

According the American Heritage dictionary, fascism is a system of government marked by 1) centralization of authority under a dictator, 2) stringent socioeconomic controls, 3) suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and 4) a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

The Chinese autocratic regime gleefully fulfills this definition.

China’s forced occupation of Tibet has led to the deaths of an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans. Additionally China’s direct support of the Sudan genocide blatantly continues.

Within China’s borders, compulsory family “planning” and forced abortions are universal. China has hundreds of forced-labor prisons, which hold political and religious dissidents.

There are first-hand reports of physical and psychological torture, confessions forced by torture, live organ harvesting, and other inconceivable atrocities within these prisons.

America should send a message to China: we do not support you; we will not attend the Olympics.

Jared McKinney, Corvallis