Overview

This is the first book to tell the full story of the U.S. Army's biggest sex scandal, which would never have erupted without the news media. In 1996, Brenda Hoster, a decorated 20-year veteran, was shocked to learn that her former boss, Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney, the service's top enlisted man, had been appointed to a Pentagon commission to ferret out sexual harassment. Just months earlier, Hoster had accused McKinney of sexually harassing and assaulting her and had retired in disgust when the army took no action. Now even more disgusted, Hoster leaked her story to The New York Times. Several other military women came forward, resulting in 18 charges of sexual misconduct against McKinney. But the ensuing court martial ended with the careers of the women ruined, while McKinney, convicted only on one count of obstruction of justice, retired with full pension, demoted one rank. News media were a driving force in the scandal, applying pressure that led to a high-profile court martial, strongly influencing the course of the trial and its verdict. As the ordeal unfolds, we see a seriously flawed, enormously powerful news establishment that shapes events even as it tries to remain detached, and destroys individuals without meaning to. First, Brenda Hoster uses media to punish McKinney and gains public sympathy; then, the defense manipulates the press to stain the accusers' reputations. This case becomes a prism for viewing American sexual mores, stereotypes, conflicts over women in uniform, and the strange vacillation of the U.S. press between passive observer and powerful catalyst of social conflict.

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9780275988098

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Christopher T. Hanson is associate professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. A 20-year veteran of newspaper and wire-service journalism specializing in military topics, he is a contributing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review.

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