The seriousness of the charge trumps every time. Forget the facts, forget journalistic integrity.

It is so rampant with the leftists that it deserves its own acronym:

SOTC

If this were the "Civil War" era, the "writer" in question would have been hunted down, and, in the event he was taken alive, would be spending the duration carving his "stories" into the underside of the floor of the prison cell he would be occupying, with his bare fingers.

If this were even as recent as WW II, there is a very good chance something similar would befall such a person as "Scott Thomas."

Sadly, over the last sixty years, something has gone hideously awry in this country. We won WW II (barely) by sheer ruthlessness, as we bombed Germany nearly flat and nuked two cities in Japan, which resulted in an unconditional surrender in both cases.

This country has not really won a war since.

I truly fear we are going to lose this country, and most of us are going to live to see it.

I wonder if the commanding officer of the base in question, during the time period in which these offenses allegedly occurred can file libel/slander charges against the newspaper, as these charges certainly would have defamed his character, leadership ability and brought into question his judgment in the field of battle...

Just a thought...

Here's another example of B.G. Burkett busting fake atrocity stories.  This is from a segment from "60 Minutes" back in the 80's in which Burkett decides to investigate and tear down their stories.  Here's a quote from the link below.

"The truth was uncovered by B.G. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran and author of Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History (with Glenna Whitley). Burkett discovered that only one of the vets had actually served in combat. Steve Southards, who'd claimed to be a 16-year-old Navy SEAL assassin, had actually served as an equipment repairman stationed far from combat. Later transferred to Subic Bay in the Philippines, Steve spent most of his time in the brig for repeatedly going AWOL.

And George Gruel, who claimed he was traumatized by the sight of his friend being chopped to pieces by a propeller? Navy records reveal that a propeller accident did take place on the Ticonderoga when Gruel was aboard — but that he wasn't around when it happened. During Gruel's tour, the ship had been converted to an antisubmarine warfare carrier which operated, not on "secret mission" along the Vietnam coast, but on training missions off the California coastline. Nevertheless, Burkett notes, Gruel receives $1,952 a month from the Veterans Administration for "psychological trauma" related to an event he only heard about.

Mikal Rice — the anguished vet who claimed to have cradled his dying buddy in his arms — actually spent his tour as a guard with an MP company at Cam Ranh Bay. He never saw combat. Neither did Terry Bradley, who was not the "fighting sergeant" he'd claimed to be. Instead, military records reveal he served as an ammo handler in the 25th Infantry Division and spent nearly a year in the stockade for being AWOL. That's good news for the hundreds of Vietnamese civilians Bradley claimed to have slaughtered."

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/morse200409150552.asp

"Well I got nothing against the press, they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true"  'Sunday Papers'