Why this wasn't wall-to-wall national news Monday I have no clue. This was clearly a domestic terror attack, set by somebody on MLK Day, at an MLK Day parade. No clue on the suspect or their motives, but the intended target and timing says a hell of a lot.
I'm not the only person to have noticed that the Village media has all but completely ignored this story, either. Will Bunch explores the lack of coverage from Drudge to the NY Times.
When it emerged that alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner was an almost certainly mentally ill 22-year-old who seemed to follow some bizarre conspiracy theories but not the political rhetoric of Palin or the Tea Party, there was massive pushback from conservatives who accused the mainstream media of jumping to unfair conclusions. Most famously, Palin herself emerged to call this a "blood libel." The former GOP veep nominee was savaged for using that charged term, but you have to wonder now if the pushback from Palin is actually a case of "mission accomplished."
That's because with this new episode in Spokane, not only have the pillars of the mainstream media not raced to any conclusions, but they seem to be in a competition as to who can most ignore the story altogether. But there's no need to jump to unwarranted conclusions here; the actual facts have been laid out by the nation's preeminent law enforcement agency, the FBI -- that we are dealing with a case of "domestic terrorism," that the sophisticated device along the King Day parade route was capable of causing mass casualties, and the target was American citizens celebrating an icon of the progressive movement, Dr. King.
Maybe the implications are just a little too frightening for the mainstream media to want to deal with. But this episode seems to clarify what some of us have been reporting and writing about for the last two years, that there is an escalating tide of political violence in this country, and the majority of perpetrators or incidents involve the targets of eliminationist rhetoric from the right wing. This is a major issue for America -- on a par, in my opinion, with U.S.-China relations or the future of health care reform -- and the media is dropping the ball here, big-time. It's not too late to pick it up.
I'm sincerely hoping some additional information on the case and/or the arrest of a suspect or suspects will put this story back into the national limelight, because right now it's looking like yet another major domestic terror story is being spiked in the wake of right-wing whinging that there is no domestic terror problem in this country. Some more info has come to light in the last 24 hours:
The bomb, which was defused without incident on Monday, was the most potentially destructive he had ever seen, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information about the investigation.
“They haven’t seen anything like this in this country,” the official said. “This was the worst device, and most intentional device, I’ve ever seen.”
That right there should give all of us pause. If an official with the investigation is saying that this is a lot more than just a simple pipe bomb or IED, then we should all be concerned. And yet...this story is not news, apparently
Compare the coverage of this story to the Times Square bombing attempt last year or the Christmas 2009 underwear bomber story, and you're beginning to see the similarities and the major difference so far in how this story has been handled.
If there was an inkling of a possible Muslim suspect in this attack, there's no doubt in my mind that this story would have dominated cable news for several days now. Your garden variety racist/white supremacist wanting to blow up a Martin Luther King Day parade doesn't count as terrorism news, apparently...even when the FBI admits that race must have played a factor in the attempt.
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