One of my core frustrations with the Corporate Media is how fast they turn onto, and off of, stories Veterans Day has come and gone and that means, sadly, coverage of veterans will come and go as well.
I saw this happen incredibly clearly with the Burma NewsLadder I launched just over a month ago, boom, everyone was on Burma, and then absolute silence from our media - interestingly enough, overseas the media has continued to cover the story; and we are continuing to link to all the stories from around the world and we are still getting great traffic to the site.
As important as Burma is to me personally, perhaps no where do we see the on-again, off-again coverage more powerfully than we do with the coverage of veterans and our men and women in uniform. While politicians are more than happy to parade the troops out on Veteran's Day, when the coverage turns away from veterans, so do the politicians.
Remember Walter Reed and the outrage? The most tragic story I heard about that situation was from Bobby Muller, the dynamic founder of Veterans For America - when he was just home from Vietnam, paralyzed from the waist down, there was similar outrage and a LIFE cover story - and guess what? Nothing changed.
And it needs to.
So today, I am pleased to announce that with the kind sponsorship of Veterans For America, I am launching the OurTroops NewsLadder which will be a one-stop site for all the news and information about our troops, our service members and our men and women in uniform.
Like all of the NewsLadders we have launched so far, Burma and California, the premise behind a single NewsLadder is both powerful, and simple.
Anyone can sign up and submit stories to the ladder; it can be a link to a blog post, a newspaper article, a video anything - all links are created equal.
Then anyone can vote a story up or down - and what's at the top of the ladder is what everyone, collectively, feels is the most important news of the day; everyone gets a vote and can comment and recommend and move the news up or down.s
In addition to Veterans For America, I also have some great assistance on the OurTroops NewsLadder. My good friend Dave Johnson is helping me by being the lead editor on the project; reaching out to bloggers and putting up lots of links and adding editors.
Which is another unique function of the NewsLadder - we do have editors, folks who are leaders in the community; folks like Dave and Major Bobby Hanafin (retired). There is ladder you can look at, Editor's Choice, where you can see what the Editors think are the most important stories.
So whether you want to know what's up with our troops, whether you want to link to something or if you write something or see something and want everyone to see, head to NewsLadder.
The news will be there - 7 days a week, 365 days a year.