1115.org

Before anyone was fired over the systematic failures to address the problems at Walter Reed even though they had been repeatedly called to the attention of top hospital administrators, the U.S. military took what they obviously considered more urgent corrective action:

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.

The Army is hurt that its actions have been misrepresented and misunderstood, so they have issued a clarification:

Yesterday, the Army Times reported that soldiers at Walter Reed say they have been told “they must not speak to the media.” Editor & Publisher reported subsequently that the military press crackdown was more widespread than Walter Reed, and that “many of the denials are apparently in reaction to the potential negativity of a planned story.”

In an interview with ThinkProgress, Army spokesman Paul Boyce insisted that the Army Times report is inaccurate, and that injured vets are “free to exercise their First Amendment right” and speak with the media. But upon further questioning, Boyce acknowledged that if patients at Walter Reed wanted to speak to reporters inside the hospital, they must first receive approval from the hospital’s press relations office.

What if reporters want to speak to a reporter without getting approval from a PR office? “They can go to Starbucks,” Boyce said. Asked whether this was a reasonable solution for patients recuperating from physical and mental trauma, Boyce said yes. “It’s just a short trip, and many of them want to get out [of the hospital] anyway.”

You think, huh?

Boyce repeatedly justified the restrictions on patients’ activities by citing the fact that Walter Reed hospital is a “government building.” ThinkProgress contacted several legal analysts and none of them could explain why this would justify media restrictions.

Stand by for further developments. Sometime in the next week it’s going to occur to one of these clowns who masquerade as military decision makers by day that “the whole country belongs to us, doesn’t it, it’s just like one big government building?” They’ll probably call it “Operation Throw The Bums Out”.