A Friend Stopped By | 10/23/2009 10:15 am

CBS News Anchor Cami McCormick ... Someone to Run For, by Kimberly Dozier

By Kimberly Dozier

Editor’s Note: Kimberly Dozier has been a CBS News correspondent since 2003. A Wellesley graduate, she started her career at CBS radio in Cairo in 1992. She moved to Israel, where she has had a home outside Jerusalem since 2003. Her new book, Breathing the Fire, is about her surviving — and what it took to recover from — a car-bomb attack while she was on assignment in Iraq.

This weekend, I’m running the 10K part of the Marine Corps Marathon, for a second time. Last year, I did it to prove I could. This time, there’s no "I" about it. This is for Fisher House – one of those great wounded warrior charities that provides a place to stay for loved ones of the injured, and also runs "Hero Miles," where you can donate your air miles, which are then used to fly loved ones of the injured to Walter Reed or Landstuhl or wherever they need to go.

And right now, Fisher House is taking care of the McCormick clan – the sister and niece of CBS News anchor Cami McCormick, who is currently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.(at the U.S. Army’s invitation because of their expertise with these injuries; and paid for by CBS’s insurance).

Cami got hit in Afghanistan with an army patrol on August 28 this year. That’s her "alive day" – the day she survived, when by rights, she shouldn’t have. The gunner in position just above her was killed. At one point, though she loathes "being the story" as I did, she will tell hers, and his – she has kept in touch with the patrol and their commander from her hospital bed, as she goes through the multiple surgeries and painful rehab that are part and parcel of this process.

Here’s the tough part – just after she was hit, a fellow journalist blogged about it on a site linked to military.com. Some bloggers reacted to the news angrily – that a reporter was hit, and was getting headlines, while a soldier had died (and of course, as per congressional mandate, his name could not be released for 24 hours).

Actually, CBS News had been taking embedding to the "enth" degree – they planned to release nothing until the Pentagon had informed the military families of the soldier lost … and the two who were injured. A blogger in Afghanistan, together with the one who posted the news on military.com, actually put paid to that plan. I wasn’t too happy with them that day – but I salute the dozens of journalists across the world who knew Cami got hit, and said nothing. They knew the drill, and knew the process the military was going through to reach their people back in the States.

The other hard part – some of the horrible reactions on that site. Bloggers denounced Cami, and all journalists covering wars, as "scum," and one actually wished Cami dead, saying it was a shame she survived and a soldier instead had died.

I reacted like any overprotective friend (who was basically feeling totally helpless watching her and her family at the hospital, coping with the same things mine had almost four years ago). I asked the site to consider taking that poison down. Military.com decided that it was better left standing, since so many other bloggers jumped all over venom-blogger, and questioned whether he/she had actually ever been to a combat zone.

That silenced the poison keyboard tapper.

But Cami still heard – ironically, via an anonymous e-mail from an officer who said he was "ashamed about what was being written about her," so naturally, she had to get a computer and track it down. And sitting there in the hospital bed, recovering from an IED attack, well … it didn’t exactly add to the healthy healing vibe, you know?

11 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

You go girl!!

By Beth Cornell on 10/23/2009 10:26 am

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You definitely go both of you—I’m so impressed by you both—I’m a Viet vet and you two walk the walk as far as I’m concerned. I’d hump the boonies with you any day. Pay no attention to the losers.

By F P on 10/23/2009 10:29 am

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What an inspiring story. Everyone sounds so brave. FP, I salute you for all you went through also. Semper Fi!

By Murphy Mac on 10/23/2009 10:45 am

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I had not heard about Fisher House, but oh what a great idea! I will make a contribution for sure.

This article does bring up the quandary we have when it comes to covering the wars. In the U.S. most of us want to know what is happening. How are our service people surviving, what are they enduring and what is the real deal overseas. As long as the information being gleaned is done in a manner that does not affect the soldiers from doing their jobs and does not put them in harms way, I always said, go for it.

However when the reporters are injured, they are afterall Americans. Just as the soldiers are over there doing their job, the reporters are doing theirs as well, which is bringing us the real and unvarnished truth. The ugly reality of our loved ones fighting. They too deserve our respect and concern.

On any blog site anywhere on the net you are going to find people who "get off" on spewing hatred, rhetoric and in some instances what I call verbal bombs. These are statements that they know will blow up a message board. They throw their bomb and sit back and watch as one blogger after another jumps all over it. I now see these people for what they are and their games. I’m sure Cami realizes more Americans support her than revile her. I know I do.

By Belinda Joy on 10/23/2009 11:08 am

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Thank you for supporting and speaking out on such a worthy cause and a terrible abuse of the internet. Please let Cami and her family know that there are many of us that are praying for a speedy recovery and peace for her and her family.

By Margie Goforth on 10/23/2009 11:44 am

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On anonymous bloggers flaming those who risk their lives to serve, in whatever capacity - SO true. Resentment and cowardice, indeed. I have never known anyone who has served in a combat zone to behave this way; those who know what that really is, respect the courage of those who willingly go there to do their jobs, whether they are diplomats, journalists, or service contractors, and even whether they personally like them or not. Even if you are not hurt or killed, the experience changes you. You have to live it to really "get it."

We have talked here before about the decline of common courtesy and how the Internet lends itself to anonymous, cowardly flames such as you describe. It’s a form of bullying. Calling them out is the right thing to do, and we should do so "in real life" too, when it comes up - on ANY topic. Public shaming of poor behavior is a very effective tool to enforce some modicum of decency.

By Lila Kuh on 10/23/2009 2:02 pm

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Your courage gives me hope for the future. I have found that most negative people have nothing of value in their own lives and resent the positive things others have going for themselves. You and Cami stay strong. We need people like the two of you.

By Mary E. Sayler on 10/23/2009 8:07 pm

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Ms. Cami, as a Veteran I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. My children were raised at Quantico MC Base for the first 10 yrs of their lives. I worked many marathons and I really didn’t care who won, I was just so please and grateful that I could be there to help out.

I know many of the young Men and Women coming home who’ve been hurt emotionally and physically rely on Fisher House.

So again I say thank you for myself and fellow Military personnel and their families.

By Deniseann Taylor on 10/24/2009 12:59 am

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Thank you for sharing the word about Fisher House. What a wonderful organization! The internet has made it possible for us to share many experiences across the miles and across cultures. Occasionally, it enables hateful agendas, thoughtless posts and too much information too poorly thought out to be shared as well. Such is the price of freedom of expression, but it pains me to think how this kind of anonymous hating can hurt people so deeply. Stories like this remind all of us to think before hitting the send button.

Best wishes and have a great run! You have earned it.

By Susan Crawford on 10/24/2009 8:48 am

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Fisher House is the only way that some families are able to be with loved ones during rehabilitation. I am grateful that Kimberly Dozier will run in support of it.

I would like to take issue with people that think that everything that happens in a war zone should be publicized or blogged about. There was an adage during the Second World War that "Loose lips sink ships." It should be remembered today. Our service people put their lives on the line every day in a war zone. If something happens families don’t need to hear some version of it from a blog. As a former reporter I am all for freedom of the press. That has limits if it breaches the personal privacy of families. That also applies to reporters that might be captured because the insurgents that have them might think their death is worth more than the ransom for their particular cause.

By Chris Glass` on 10/24/2009 1:47 pm