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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14 comments:
"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."
The irony is that this moron doesn't see the racism in his own statement decrying racism.
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.
Nice job attempting to accuse the media of racism or Islamophobia. The Times Square bomber was caught and eventually convicted; a Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility as well. The underwear bomber was caught as he was getting off the plane he tried to blow up. Both were Muslims. There has been no public identification of the person or persons who planted the bomb in Spokane. So the media knew who the Times Square and underwear bombers were, but don't know who the Spokane bomber(s) is(are). What's interesting is that the media hasn't decided to engage in a bunch of wild speculation because they don't have all or enough information, but you're willing to do so. Who is the one with the problem?
It's pretty obvious that the liberal media has gotten such a backlash over jumping to conclusions (all proven false, I might add) about Jared Loughner that they are playing it safe on this bombing attempt.
But Zandar so desperately wants to validate his extremism by hoping the perpetrator is Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck that he won't let facts or critical thinking skills stand in the way.
Not our Zandar, no sir.
No one should speculate about anything ever - in fact, how do we know this bomb was planted at all? Maybe it was just left there on accident, like someone leaving a sweater on a bus? Or, maybe the guy was sitting patiently on the bench, waiting to watch the parade before visiting his saintly grandmother so he can give her a birthday bomb, but was suddenly snatched away by a giant eagle, leaving his favorite bomb on the bench. Think of the poor anguish his grandmother must be going through. Who can truly say WHO would would have placed a bomb along a street with a parade about to go by?
It is vitally important, whomever it might have been, to make sure that the right is not blamed, because conservatives are just not prone to lash out blindly at people just because they don't like them. Even if, IF mind you, a fringe right winger did lay this bomb, then it would be imprudent to accuse the right of disseminating hate speech, because no one ever explicitly stated 'Someone should set up a bomb along a parade for MLK day, and here are the instructions and ingredients you shall need. And I really mean it, this was not a joke, and my fingers are not crossed.'
However, Michael Moore is still fat, so both sides do it, ha ha, no backsies.
First! (argh, dammit abanterer!)
It's not any advantage to the MSM to point out the truth of domestic terrorism. It would put a wet blanket on their chief mode of generating ratings -- and therefore advertising dollars. It'd be like the Bada Bing revealing that their hottest stripper is really a dude.
It might generate a hot story in the short term, but to suddenly pull the plug on the 'false equivalency show' would so destroy their business model that they wouldn't know what to do.
Besides, the kleptocrats who run the MSM parent corporations are all touchy, feely and kissy with the hottest stripper in the club. Too bad she's a dude. And she -um, he- makes a dangerous enemy.
Followed your link, Z, and found two things.
First, BJ and his audience are trying to spin this as the work of a 'Liberal Plant.' I'm not going to justify that with a comment.
Second, the BJ post links to a local news station story, which cites a Seattle Times story as its source, but only links to the Times' front page. The KHQ story also conveniently leaves out this, from the Seattle Times story on 20Jan2011:
Another explosive device was found March 23 beside the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse in downtown Spokane. No arrests have been made in that investigation, and agents didn't know if the two incidents were related, Harrill said.
The Spokane region and adjacent northern Idaho have had numerous incidents of anti-government and white supremacist activity during the past three decades.
In other words, the town is full of racists with the demonstrated means, motive. Half the town is probably wishing it did go off.
I think it was almost surely the New Black Panthers. Remember those dudes? Sunglasses? Nightsticks? Berets? This clip of them ran on an endless loop at Fox during the elections.
Anyway, as everyone knows, the New Black Panthers think MLK's brotherhood shtick was wimpy-ass weak sauce, so I bet it was they who wanted to blow up the parade.
I give it a 50% chance that when this story does break in the MSM, it will be spun with the meme "we can't be sure it wasn't a liberal plant."
I will assume SteveAR is the bomber until proven otherwise.
i will assume that steveAR is an idiot until he posts something that isn't idiotic.
But we can all agree that Zandar's a racist at least. That's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.
if we all just start agreeing with your idiotic rants, will you go away? jeez. reading your posts leaves me feeling unclean. you're a fucking lunatic.
I'm sorry, Bystander, but it's not my job to reinforce the worldviews of the stupid and delusional. Your bargain will fail.
hey, i tried.
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