Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Sydney Schanberg discusses his article “John McCain and the POW Cover-Up,” the hundreds of U.S. POWs and MIAs knowingly left in Vietnam and Laos after U.S. withdrawal, Arizona Senator John McCain’s suppression of the truth surrounding the abandonment of missing soldiers, personal reasons McCain may have for wanting to keep the records secret, the complicity of the mainstream media and thousands within the government in refusing to address this issue, McCain’s history of not supporting the VA system, the 900 U.S. soldiers left behind in Korea and the constant lying to Americans by our government.

MP3 here. (32:03)

Sydney H. Schanberg, a journalist for nearly 50 years, has written extensively on foreign affairs–particularly Asia–and on domestic issues such as ethics, racial problems, government secrecy, corporate excesses and the weaknesses of the national media. Most of his journalism career has been spent on newspapers but his award-winning work has also appeared widely in other publications and media. The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran - a memoir of his experiences covering the war in Cambodia for the New York Times and of his relationship with his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran. For his accounts of the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting “at great risk.”

Joshua Kors, reporter for The Nation, discusses the unbelievable lengths to which the U.S. government will go in order to avoid and delay providing medical and disability benefits to the soldiers who fight their wars for them, the stories of Spc. Town and Sgt. Jimenez, the unbelievable numbers of men coming home Shell Shocked and committing suicide (17 per day on average, and already a greater number than those killed during the Iraq occupation), the methods by which the VA hides the true numbers, private, and local and state government attempts to fill the gap, serious attempts by some in congress to try to do close some of the VA’s loopholes and some of the various veterans groups working to help each other out.

MP3 here. (43:55)

Joshua Kors is an investigative reporter for The Nation, where he covers military and veterans’ issues. He is the winner of the National Magazine Award, George Polk Award, IRE Award, National Headliner Award, Casey Medal and the Mental Health Media Award.  He was also a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award, Tom Renner Award, Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award.