From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield. And I'm Brooke Gladstone. We begin with the

inside story of an historic scoop. 40 years ago this weekend, March 16th, 1968, U.S. soldiers entered

the South Vietnamese village of Mai and killed hundreds of unarmed

civilians and what became the most notorious atrocity of the war. Lieutenant William Calley, Jr., a platoon

leader in Charlie Company, was court-martialed and charged with murder. In 1971, his commanding

officer, Captain Ernest Medina, spoke with Bob Schiefer of CBS News

shortly after Callie was found guilty. Why? You ask yourself, why me lie? Why me? Why my company?

You can go down outside this building on the street and take any young teenager that's walking down,

average American apple pie and mother, those were the members of C Company.

At times it doesn't seem real. It's like a dream.

While working on a book about Pentagon procurement, reporter Seymour Hirsch received a tip from an anti-war attorney about a guy who shot up a bunch of civilians in Vietnam.

At the Pentagon, he floated that tip by a general working for the Army Chief of Staff, and the general mentioned William Callie.

Armed now with a name, Hirsch tracked down Callie's lawyer, George Latimer,

in Utah. There in Latimer's office, Hirsch laid eyes on an army indictment sheet,

charging Callie with the murder of, quote, 109 Oriental human beings. By the way, as soon as I saw

that document, I'd like to tell you, I thought, oh my God,

this is going to kill the war, it's going to hurt the war effort. But really, fame, fortune,

glory raised through my mind. What a story. I mean, this is a great story. That gave me the big start.

And I figured out where Cali was. I spent a horrible, long day looking for him, finally found him. You didn't know where he was.

Oh my God, I didn't know anything. I just knew the charge sheet was written at an Army base in

South Carolina. And I just started looking for him. I flew that night from the West Coast, via

Chicago, I think, into Columbia, South Carolina, rented a car, went to the base, and at that time, they were open.

...