Bob McCarty Writes

Below, in much the same manner as Fox News published a year-end piece, Nine Big Stories the Mainstream Media Missed in 2009, I highlight four seven subjects I covered that were, mostly or largely, ignored by the “lame-stream” media:

1.  The Chevron-Ecuador Lawsuit — My coverage began April 22 with the post, Blogger Investigating $27 Billion Lawsuit Against Chevron, Sending Correspondent to Ecuador.  Twenty-eight posts later, I found myself being trashed by The Huffington Post for reporting the facts.  A badge of honor, I say.

2. Anti-Socialism Rallies — Not your typical “Tea Party” rallies, the K and N Patriots’ rallies were launched by a 68-year-old grandmother whose message continues to resonate.  To date, I’ve published 22 posts, several of which included videos contrasting the patriotic, pro-freedom crowd with those advocating government-run health care.

3. Single-Payer Health Care — On Nov. 14, I crashed the 2009 Healthcare-Now.org National Strategy Conference as the only journalist in a room full of radical, left-wing single-payer health plan advocates, including NOW President Terry O’Neill, as they discussed extreme proposals for government-run health care.  In addition to a piece published at Pajamas Media, I published 11 posts that included 10 unique videos from the conference.

4. Three Navy SEALs — In four posts this month, I not only covered the surface issues related to the case of three Navy SEALs facing charges related to their apprehension of an enemy combatant, but I sought out inside sources, including a retired Navy SEAL who questioned the nation’s mental state.

Stay tuned as I’m working on several investigative pieces — including one on small town health care — and plan to publish them during the coming months.

UPDATE 1/01/10 at 11 a.m. Central: As I published this post yesterday afternoon, I must have been experiencing the side effects of what I like to call a “brain fart.”  In short, I left at least three more important story subjects off of my list of stories missed by the mainstream media.  Because I own this blog, I decided to add items #5 and #6 below:

5. LIE DETECTORS IN COMBAT — On April 9, I asked the question, Is Tech ‘Turf War’ Putting U.S. Troops at Risk? What followed was a series of six more posts about a controversy with life-and-death implications has been brewing for years over the Army’s decision to deploy the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System, a hand-held lie detector, to combat zones instead of using new, more effective technology preferred by those who’ve used both in combat zones.  I have more stories coming on this subject.

6. EXCLUSIVE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING INTERVIEWS — While many consider the subject closed, I consider it wide open.  After new post-blast video tapes were released by the FBI, many wondered why the nation’s top law enforcement agency didn’t release tapes from prior to the bombing.  In two exclusive interviews published in late September, I spoke with Jayna Davis, investigative reporter and author of the best-selling chronicle,  The Third Terrorist, and David P. Schippers, a man who served as chief investigative counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee during the Clinton Impeachment Hearings and as manager of the proceedings that followed in the U.S. Senate.  He is an outspoken believer in Davis.  My investigation of this story isn’t finished.

7.  1st Lt. MICHAEL BEHENNA –I wrote my first story about this Army officer from Edmond, Okla., in June.  Six months later, I launched a tirade of more than a dozen follow-up pieces, nine of which were penned by new BMW contributor Carrie Fatigante.  In short, his story is one of justice denied.  He’s now serving a 20-year sentence for killing a known Al-Qaeda operative in self-defense.  For the complete story in one document, read “The Michael Behenna Story (pdf),” a 26-page document (PDF) by Fatigante.