Wounded army private Jessica Lynch is set for an emotional homecoming today in a rural West Virginia community bristling with flags, yellow ribbons and TV news trucks.
But when the supply clerk (20) arrives by Blackhawk helicopter to the embrace of family and friends, media critics say the TV cameras will not show the return of an injured soldier so much as a reality-TV drama co-produced by US government propaganda and credulous reporters.
"It no longer matters in America whether something is true or false. The population has been conditioned to accept anything: sentimental stories, lies, atomic bomb threats," said Mr John MacArthur, the publisher of Harper'smagazine.
Ms Lynch was in a 507th Maintenance Company convoy on March 23 when her company was ambushed near the city of Nassiriya. Eleven soldiers died and nine were wounded in a 90-minute firefight.
She became a national hero after media reports quoted unnamed US officials as saying she fought fiercely before being captured, firing on Iraqi forces despite sustaining multiple gunshot and stab wounds.
In the end, army investigators concluded Ms Lynch was injured when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle in the convoy after it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The army said the convoy blundered into the ambush after getting lost and many of the unit's weapons malfunctioned during the battle.
The US military also released video taken during an apparently daring rescue by US special forces who raided the Iraqi hospital where she was being treated.
Iraqi doctors at the hospital said later the US rescuers had faced no resistance and the operation had been over-dramatised.
Ms Lynch herself has been quoted as saying she can remember nothing of the ambush or the rescue.
A spokesman for US Central Command in Florida had no comment when asked about assertions that the heroism tale was government propaganda.
The Washington Post, which was the first to report the heroic version of Ms Lynch's capture, was sharply criticed by its ombudsman, Mr Michael Getler, for its handling of the story.
"Why did the information in that first story, which was wrong in its most compelling aspects, remain unchallenged for so long?" Mr Getler asked.
The Lynch story also exposed CBS News to criticism after the network offered Ms Lynch a movie deal while trying to persuade her to give an interview about her experiences.