Shorter @DylanByers: ‘Hurry Up, FBI, So We Can Start the Media Blame Game!’

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So, my three most recent stories for Viral Read were about:

  1. A dead 8-year-old boy;
  2. A dead 29-year-old woman; and
  3. A press conference where the FBI said they are conducting a “wide open” investigation into the Boston bombing.

While doing a search for more coverage to include in my updated aggregation, I happened upon this ghoulish blog post by Politico‘s media critic Dylan Byers:

For many journalists I’ve spoken with today, this ignorance is tortuous. The identification of the attacker(s) and the reasons for the attack will likely have enormous political (and potentially geoplitical) ramifications, which will vary greatly depending on whether the attacker(s) is domestic or foreign, acting alone or as part of an organization. We’re standing on the verge of a very important national conversation about something, and we have no idea what it is.

To translate: By “a very important national conversation,” of course Dylan Byers means, another chance to turn a horrible tragedy into a political talking point.

I agree with Jackie Wellfonder: “Be still and know.”

UPDATE: Linked by Ed Driscoll — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers! Do you remember the guy in that horrible picture who got his legs blown off? His name is Jeff Bauman Jr. and he’s in stable condition.

 

 

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62 comments

  1. The TV/Cable news orgs, however, have to fill empty air and they don’t care if what they say is at all accurate. Over at Castle Argghhh, The Armorer puts it like this, “Staff Officer 101: The first, second and third report will be wrong.” The sad this, that the follow on to those will most likely be wrong. It’ll probably take a coupel to 7 days before tehy finally have enough info to get it right, and the ADHD media will have lost interest by then.

  3. What ignorance? That’s the natural state for these practitioners of the world’s second oldest profession (sorry, Stacy). Why would he or anyone else in the media let ignorance stand in his way?

    Blame obviously attaches to Sarah Palin and Wayne LaPierre. With plenty left over for Mitch McConnell too.

    Oh, and Faux Noise!!!11!!eleventy!!1!

  4. Watched CNN in the DFW airport yesterday and my first two thoughts were: 30 minutes before the TEA Party is blamed (apparently I lost that bet – Prognazis were ready to go right away), and we’ll have to blame the Amish again, since the terrorist is likely a member of the Religion That Can Not Be Acknowledged.
    Third thought: Obama will say the bombing is why we need gun control.

  10. Maybe, in the absence of an identifiable culprit/agenda, we could have a discussion about how exploding bombs upon unsuspecting civilians is beyond the pale of human society and people who advocate, plot, or perform such heinous acts have permanently revoked their rights to participate in civil society and really should be shunned until they wither and die.
    Because otherwise it’s rather pointless in worrying about who actually did this. Might as well make them tenured faculty at universities, or political allies of the President…

    Is that the conversation Byers really wants to start?

  15. Yesterday was the 148th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln.
    I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t blamed the Republicans for attacking a ”blue state” in their “rush to judgement.”

  18. But note this – not a word of “Who let this happen?!” That’s because the local and national leadership who are charged with protecting us against this are of the “good” party. Where they of the “bad” party, the knives would already be out and the identity of the actual perpetrators would almost be irrelevant.

  19. Or Ayer’s comrade Kathy Boudin, who survived the Weather Underground townhouse bomb-factory explosion and subsequently was part of the Brinks robbery plot that killed a cop and a Brinks guard.

  23. Just wait: At some point some “journalist” is going to advance the theory that pro-gun advocates carried out the bombing in order to demonstrate that mass murders can easily be committed WITHOUT guns.

  25. Does anyone remember the bombing (and 1 death) of the Math Building at the University of Wisconsin by LEFTIST, violent, antiwar protesters? You know, the kind of people who are Democratic Senators today.

  29. across the pond here…..they’re already blaming white-wing er right-wing groups for the bombing…..

  30. If a Muslim did it, MSNBC-Comcast will appeal for calm and fret that eee-vil rightwingers will start harassing Muslims at any moment.

    If a non-Muslim did it, MSNBC-Comcast will blame it on rightwingers and demand that government harrass them.

    The rest of the Establishment Media will fall in line behind the MSNBC-Comcast script.

  38. Hey, don’t laugh about the no trash cans. There are almost no public trash receptacles in Israeli cities, for just this reason. Yet, there’s almost no littering either. Two years ago, I didn’t see a scrap of litter there until six days into a nine-day visit, and it was a bit disorienting. (Then again, beside every Arab village and Bedouin squatter camp we passed on the road [can’t enter them], there stood an IMMENSE pile of garbage. So go figure.)
    Forgive the little trip off-topic, and prep the tar and feathers for the self-important lefty presstitutes, OK?

  39. I’ve been thinking since 9/11 that this sort of thing – random, hideous, unpredictable attacks, WITH NO GLOATING AFTERWARDS, only silence – is the only strategy that smart terrorists would use. No way to strike back, or to defend against. One of these in just five or so cities across the country, and we WILL be paralyzed in short order. When the Beltway snipers struck, I expected many more just like them. It may have taken a dozen years, but the bad guys – whoever they are – have finally learned. G-d help us.

  44. If you like that, you’ll love David Sirota over at Salon hoping beyond hope its a white guy who did it.

  46. There are no on-street trash receptacles in London either. Post boxes, where still found, have an inlet thinner than a saltine.

  47. What we all do know now is:

    This is what nail bombs do.

    The names Aters, Dohn, Boudin, et.al need to be forced into the conversation.

    It’s time for some people to own up to their associates. As publicly as possible.

  48. Agree – the unknown multiplies the terror exponentially. It is the secondary, and more powerful attack: the public panics, government reacts, usually with poor, un-thought-out decisions like the Patriot Act, loss of liberty and other measures which foment rage at government.

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