2 weeks Ago
The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press say their mission is to “deliver the truth every day.” But that doesn’t always happen.A handful of reckless politicians and their media allies have spent the last two months trying to scare veterans into thinking the Trump administration is cutting their Department of Veterans Affairs health care and benefits.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. As I’ve said repeatedly, we’re reforming the VA to eliminate the waste and bureaucracy that have gotten in the way of veteran care for years — problems no one has attempted to fix until now.Here in Virginia, Sen.
Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott have been lying brazenly about the staffing situation at VA’s new North Battlefield Outpatient Clinic. They said the new clinic is going to open with only 30% of the staff it needs and blamed the situation on our efforts to fix problems across the department.
Did The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press Editorial Board question these lies? Nope. The board reported them uncritically without checking the facts in an uninformed editorial (“Caring for our warriors,” April 9).There were so many errors, it was hard to know where to even begin.
Among other things, the piece claimed that:The North Battlefield clinic would open with “only 150” employees, 350 less than it should have, a situation it blamed on “deep staffing cuts across the VA.”The Trump administration wants to slash veterans’ health care across the nation.We have no plan for reforming VA.
The VA is only for “military retirees.”It’s amazing that the editorial board, which serves a state and region with such a rich military history, knows so little about VA. But if its only source of information is career politicians whose goal is scoring political points by scaring veterans, it’s no surprise the board is so woefully uninformed.
We contacted the editorial board and asked for corrections. Among other things, we noted that:The North Battlefield clinic is right on track in terms of staffing. Like most VA clinics, North Battlefield is opening in phases and the facility is expected to have about 540 staff members by early 2026.
The Trump administration isn’t slashing health care or benefits — it’s expanding them. To that end, we’ve opened several new VA clinics since President Donald Trump took office in January.We have plenty of plans to reform VA, such as the one published in The Hill on March 6.
What’s more, anyone who spends five minutes looking at our website (news.va.gov/va-press-room) can see the progress we’ve made to better serve veterans, including processing disability claims faster than ever before, accelerating the deployment of a new medical records system and redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars from non-mission critical efforts to health care, benefits and services that directly support VA beneficiaries.
The VA serves all eligible veterans, families, caregivers and survivors — not just military retirees, as the editorial mistakenly claimed.The editorial board’s reaction to our request was exactly what you’d expect given the state of today’s media. It made a few trivial, cosmetic changes but otherwise refused to present both sides of the story in its editorial.
If the board had any integrity, it would have admitted its editorial was based on false assumptions about how VA operates and a failure to do even the most basic reporting. Instead, the board was too busy regurgitating political talking points to care.Sign up for Viewpoints, an opinion newsletterUnfortunately, our experience with The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press Editorial Board is par for the course.
Like most other media outlets, the board refuses to cover the Trump administration fairly or accurately, regardless of what the facts are.This is a sad state of affairs, but there is one silver lining.If this guest column runs on the opinion page, the papers will at least be delivering the truth today.
Maybe not every day, as their mission dictates, but it’s a start.Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs on X) is the 12th secretary of the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs. If you are a veteran who needs VA assistance, please call 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411)..
