In the December 26 installment of his Weekly Standard column, executive editor Fred Barnes wrote, “With the striking exception of CBS News, the media aren't interested in stories of heroism by Americans in Iraq.” Barnes faulted the media for focusing on American “victims” of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as Cpl. Pat Tillman. Tillman, a onetime professional football player, was accidentally killed by U.S. troops while serving with the U.S. Army Rangers in Afghanistan. Barnes quoted “a Pentagon official,” whom he did not name, as follows: “The press made that [Tillman's death] a negative story, a scandal almost.” In fact, the Pentagon turned the story into a “scandal” by providing the press with false and even fabricated information about Tillman's death and by withholding accurate information -- all in an apparent effort to shield Tillman's superiors from scrutiny.

From Barnes's December 26 Weekly Standard column:

The war in Iraq is a war without heroes. There are no men--or women, for that matter--known to most Americans for their bravery in combat. There are no household names like Audie Murphy or Sgt. [Alvin C.] York or Arthur MacArthur or even Don Holleder, the West Point football star killed in Vietnam. When President Bush held a White House ceremony to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to [Sgt. Paul Ray] Smith [a soldier killed by enemy fire in Iraq while providing cover to dozens of U.S. troops], the TV networks and big newspapers reported the story. The coverage lasted one day. The story didn't have legs.

Instead of heroes, there are victims. The two most famous soldiers in the war are Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman (in Afghanistan). Lynch was captured by Saddam's troops after her truck crashed. Stories of her heroism in a gun battle with Iraqis turned out to be false. She was rescued later from an Iraqi hospital. Tillman, who gave up a pro football career to join the Army, was killed by friendly fire. “The press made that a negative story, a scandal almost,” says a Pentagon official.

When Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, in the Paktia province of Afghanistan, the Department of Defense initially claimed that he died in combat. An April 23, 2004, Army press release stated that Tillman died “when his patrol vehicle came under attack.” According to a December 5, 2004, Washington Post article, records “show that his superiors exaggerated his actions and invented details as they burnished his legend in public, at the same time suppressing details that might tarnish Tillman's commanders.” For example, according to a San Francisco Chronicle investigation into Tillman's death, “all top Ranger commanders were told of the suspected fratricide” on April 23, 2004 -- the same day the Army announced that Tillman had died in combat. The Chronicle investigation also found that on April 29, 2004 -- four days before a nationally televised memorial service in Tillman's honor -- “Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, and other top commanders were told of the fratricide." However, the Army did not release this information to the public, the media, or to Tillman's family until five weeks later.