Carson, West Point and the Media
Col Mike Walker, USMC (retired)
All,
Ben Carson averred he had been offered a free ride to West Point when looking to go to college.
He was a teenager and exceptionally qualified student, one that the “best of the best” colleges and universities would seek out.
He had also joined JROTC in high school, making it inevitable that someone talked to him about going to West Point.
He also wanted to be a doctor and ROTC and West Point at that time did NOT allow cadets to graduate and go directly to medical school so Dr. Carson never seriously pursued entry into West Point.
Given his age and low interest (he admitted a number of times over the last decade or so that he never formally applied), it is completely believable that he never mastered the specific application process.
He simply recalled that he was told he was a shoe-in, a lock, it was a done deal, if he applied. Given his background and resume that is absolutely correct.
The Marine Corps, in which I served as an officer, has no academy but the Officer Selection Officers who recruit Marine officers would have crawled naked over broken glass to get Ben Carson to sign up.
Carson may not have total recall but he accurately presented reality.
So what about the journalists who wrote the story?
They are professional investigators yet they got the facts wrong. They, like teenaged Carson, also miscommunicated the complex admission process to West Point and committed other errors.
So who is being either dishonest, incompetent or both?
It is not Carson. In looking closely at the retelling of a brief event from his late teenage years, everything Dr. Carson says rings true.
How about the professional investigators?
They blew this story and were clearly either dishonest, incompetent or both.
What does it mean?
Over the decades, news reporters have gone from purveyors of the facts to advocates. They start with a preconceived answer and then cherry pick, ignore, and twist the facts to fit their narrative even when it is patently false.
That is what happened here.
Semper Fi,
Mike
