Tell me, do civilians eat this type of thing up?

I saw a story on the news tonight that I found incredibly disturbing. It's nothing new, actually. I've seen, read, and heard variations of this same story close to a dozen times over the years, and every single time, it just made me cringe. So tell me, does anyone on this planet find something cool or heartwarming about a woman giving birth on Skype or other webcam service so her husband can witness it while he's deployed? I figure they must, because the news services (everything from the local news, to Army Times, to shows like 60 Minutes) just seem to eat these stories up.

Let me paint you a picture of this trainwreck:

~Woman who's WAY too old for her husband's rank. She also talks like there's no way in hell she is the owner of anything remotely resembling a high school diploma.
~Trashy looking soldier who's usually lower-enlisted, but MIGHT be a Buck Sergeant in rare cases.
~Nasty old gray Army PT shirt laid over the baby like a blanket (ewww... you never get the funk out of those things. I would never put that on my kid.)
~Picture on nightstand of husband looking every bit like Gomer Pile.
~Bottles (because who would ever bother with that silly breastfeeding? I don't know why, but I just think bottle feeding from birth is so trashy.)
~Random and frequent mention of the word "hero".

I swear, it was exactly like a trainwreck. I didn't really want to be watching it, but I just sat there with my head cocked a bit, as I often do, and my jaw a bit slack, watching this crazy shit unfold in front of me on my little TV screen. I thought to myself, is this the kind of thing that civilians like to see? Do John and Jane Q. Public think this is representative of the "cool things" Army families do while undergoing deployments? Does it put a happy or cute spin on multiple tours and serious issues, like the fact that some soldiers don't even get to meet their children until after their first birthday? (Don't think that happens? I can name you three like that without even trying.)

I just don't understand why anybody would ever do that. For one, I could never have concentrated in labor if I knew I was being videoed. Plus, there are a lot of soldiers, especially in Afghanistan, who don't have the availability of internet in their rooms, so their only internet access is in the public MWR computer center. In previous reports like this, I have read accounts of lower-enlisted soldiers watching their children's births in the MWR center, with people all around them, in half hour increments (because, you know, there's a time limit). I swear, the last thing I'd ever do is broadcast something like that to the other side of the planet knowing there's a great chance a bunch of fools from other units (or worse, the same unit!) would be walking by gawking at the screen. (Think soldiers don't do that? They do. I know. I was lower-enlisted once, and have used my share of MWR centers, although fortunately, I have not witnessed a birth-via-webcam.)

The whole situation just makes me cringe. There's nothing cool or happy about it. It's damned ridiculous that people are even in that position, and this just goes to show how stupid a lot of wives get during deployments. Ever see the thing on Good Morning America where the Navy wife carried around a mannequin dressed like her husband for the whole time he was gone, (which was a whopping four months... I won't even expand on what I think of that.), or heard of a "Flat Daddy"? Yeah, that's a life size cardboard cutout you can get made of your husband when he's deployed. People get these things and take them everywhere. I know some people insane enough to haul a gigantic hunk of cardboard to Disney World!!! No kidding. So yeah, we've got Submariners' wives hauling around mannequins in Navy uniforms, Army wives hauling their recycling to Disney World (and everywhere else), and every few months, we get to hear another story about how Sally Sue from the trailer park gave birth on webcam and her husband PVT Pile (and his entire unit, more than likely) got to see it all the way in whatever God-Forsaken shithole he was sent to (which usually isn't all that God-Forsaken compared to other places).

When will the madness end? Seriously, I get that this lifestyle is enough to drive even the sanest person among us a little batty, but at the same point in time, people, remember that we're part of a very tiny percentage of the nation. Everyone's looking at us. Don't do stupid shit and get on the news. It's not cool. If you MUST get on the news for something military related, run the Army 10-Miler in DC, or start a charity, raise money for wounded soldiers within the unit, or become an activist for some military-related cause. (All of these were popular with wives during all of Thak's deployments with 3rd ID.) I guess it's Murphy's Law of the media, though. When a tornado hits a town, they never find the town astrophysicist to describe what happened, if you know what I mean. I guess it's the same thing here. The media loves a dumbass. Just remember that, civilian folks, next time you see reports of Sally Sue Pile birthing on webcam.