VA Public Affairs' Honesty Challenged!

Veterans Affairs Stonewalling the Press

Veterans’ Affairs Committee website highlights VA refusal to comment

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki / 

(note: C-123 veterans have been disappointed several times by VA public affairs. The first was when reporter Tom Philpot asked for details of our exposure claims and was given a "we care for all veterans" overall statement with a promise to "get back to you," which never happened. 

The next over the years have been VA spokespersons repeating the mantra "we evaluate each claim on a case by case basis." In fact this is so...but then VA denies each claim on a case by case basis! Thus the news, and the question the public needed to be informed about, is that VA has a de facto blanket policy against these veterans while denying it.

The most recent deception by Public Affairs was regarding VA's official definition of exposure and to learn if it differs from the definition used to deny veterans' exposure claims. VA Public Affairs simply referred us to that very office and said they understood we'd been in conversation with those folks...leaving the peculiar redefinition standing without explanation.

Nor in this article is VA's failure in Public Affairs to adhere to the Department's standards in communications and scientific integrity. The concerns about scientific integrity arise from VA's frequent misstatements regarding exposure issues, dry dioxin transfer, and other details surrounding Agent Orange exposure claims. It would seem individuals in the VA consider themselves exempt from standards established by VA Directive 0005....okay to deceive? Incomplete and unscientific statements? Acceptable to promise responses to the media with no intentions of honoring the pledge? Denial of the existence of policies barring veterans from medical care they qualify for? These are the kinds of deceptions which military personnel are, and should be, punished for attempting.)

BY: CJ Ciaramella  March 24, 2014 12:55 pm

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to respond to nearly 70 media requests for comment over the past year, leading legislators in Congress to accuse it of stonewalling the public in a new website launched Monday.

The VA Honesty Project, created by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, shows scores of instances where the VA public affairs office was either refusing to comment or not addressing the questions that were asked, most of them occurring in 2013.

The site shows the VA refusing to give comment to newspapers and TV affiliate stations across the country, as well as publications such as the Military Times and CNBC.

“Despite the serious issues, the VA’s chief of staff walked away when we tried to ask about the report,” CBS Memphis reported in an October 2013 story about negligence at a VA hospital that resulted in three deaths.

“He refused to take any questions about the deaths at his facility and another report News Channel 3

uncovered showing VA center directors were getting bonuses in the millions at the same time their facilities were making deadly mistakes.”

In another instance, the VA stonewalled efforts by the Tampa Tribune to investigate the deaths of 19 veterans who died as a result of diagnostic delays.

VA officials declined to comment and told the reporter a Freedom of Information Act request would be required. The VA then denied the subsequent FOIA request.

Delaware Online reported in January of this year that it had been repeatedly stonewalled seeking information about a growing backlog of VA compensation cases in Wilmington.

As previously reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the VA also added a new layer of bureaucratic review before it releases Freedom of Information Act requests, further delaying the process.

KUOW journalist John Ryan first discovered the new policy while investigating the death of a Seattle Army veteran who died at a VA hospital after receiving a lethal dose of morphine. The VA did not comment on his story.

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman Jeff Miller (R., Fla.) said in a statement that the site is dedicated to showing “how VA’s media avoidance strategy is doing the public an extreme disservice while damaging VA’s reputation in the process.”

“With 54 full-time public affairs employees, VA’s media avoidance strategy can’t be anything other than intentional,” Miller said. “What’s worse, the tactic leaves the impression that department leaders think the same taxpayers who fund the department don’t deserve an explanation of VA’s conduct.”

“At the Department of Veterans Affairs, we strive to provide accurate and timely information as we communicate every day with America’s veterans, their families, their survivors, and the American people,” a spokeswoman for the VA said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “We understand and respect the media’s important role, and we work to ensure veterans understand our commitment to provide them the services and benefits they have earned and deserve.”

“The public affairs office at VA headquarters responds to thousands of media queries each year, and we continually strive to provide reliable information quickly,” the spokeswoman continued. “VA also communicates with hundreds of thousands of veterans and those who care about veterans through many mediums, including social media.”