I'm on a short break from jury duty this afternoon and seeing now the horrible news from Boston.
I'll just repeat when I say whenever there is breaking news: reporters do as good a job as they can, but they'll get stuff wrong. Sometimes, badly wrong; sometimes, just a little. Sometimes, even the most basic, seemingly obvious "facts" turn out to be off.
Pundits speculating? Even worse.
We'll know more soon. Until then, take a deep breath, take in information if you like, but be aware that there's every possibility that what you're hearing isn't quite right, or perhaps not right at all.
Also, look for David Bernstein to be the first with important facts.
ReplyDeleteWCVB 5 and WHDH 7 have been excellent, grounded, restrained, well caveated. Lots of useful on scene reporters, and eyewitness accounts. Lots of tweets from non-MA folks, on the other hand, have been speculative and off-base.
ReplyDelete-andrew long
Also check out WBZ TV and Radio:
Deletehttp://boston.cbslocal.com/
Yes of course, I just hadn't been flipping over to 4 during the afternoon. -al
DeleteI'm also going to take DC officials with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteBut more importantly, let's pray for the killed and injured and affirm that Boston shall forever remain the Hub of the Universe.
I am sure you will hear about Patriots' Day from a lot of news media, but it is hard to describe what this day means to anyone outside of New England. It is part of the great political pride of the city that helped beat back the British and today it's memory is again marked with tragedy. It's akin to Thanksgiving, a time for friends and family, and easily bests the 4th of July in terms of cultural importance. I had no idea until I was 30 that Patriots day wasn't celebrated nationally because it's that big a deal.
ReplyDeleteI watched my Sox edge the Rays with a walk off win and I thought today was another in a long line of great Patriots' days. My thoughts with those murdered and injured and my certainty that this great city will once again show its resilience.
Proud of the Local News media, BPD, FD, MGH, BWH, CH, and the selfless nature of Bostonians. Godspeed.
I go to Wiki for a lot of news. I don't like listening to the tonals of videoreporters. The emotional undercurrents in their voices, combined with the expressions they cultivate, sets my teeth on edge.
ReplyDeleteThat is excellent advice, shall have to give it a try.
DeleteOne of the guys on CBS tried to make it very clear that the police/FBI folks were talking at a Saudi national who had not been arrested and for whom there was no reason to think he was a suspect (yet). I was actually impressed with the effort *not* to fuel hysteria.
ReplyDeleteSo are we still allowed to speculate? Feeling nervous. Early reports (grain of salt) point to a 20-year-old male Saudi national; throw out the Saudi national part and the rest (i.e. 20-year-old male) seems pretty likely, no?
ReplyDeleteDick Gordon had a guy on his show today who made the dubious decision to take out $60 K of debt to get an undergrad history/philosophy degree; he then piled on $30 K more to get a media/communications masters. I didn't catch the whole bit but apparently he has so much debt he can't pay it back, so he won't. And he's started a group.
That show ended not long before the bombs exploded. But it got me thinking: the student loan crisis in the US, plus the difficulty of unseating hideous regimes elsewhere, means that worldwide you either now have, or will soon have, a massive hopeless underclass that is historic in its level of education. That makes my inner liberal a wee bit nervous.
So when our Wall Street dude argues that rich people made the money so they should keep it, well sure, I see your point, but the roiling hopeless underclass surely doesn't agree, and by historic standards they are incredibly smart, and its apparently incredibly easy to make a terrifying bomb.
/speculation
I heard on a Boston public radio station some commenters speculating that this bombing fit the pattern of white supremacists attacks during the month of April. I'm not buying that argument. The Boston marathon is unfortunately a very attractive target and would be regardless of its date.
DeleteI'm also guessing that in Massachusetts (my home state) we have more radical Muslims than radical white supremacists or anti-government types. But that's only a guess, which is of course next to useless.
To your point that we might have many incredibly smart people who are unemployed and angry, you also have to consider who they are angry at.
Here's a fun collection of liberals in media doing the usual:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.redstate.com/dloesch/2013/04/16/the-grotesque-politicization-of-the-boston-bombing/
Nick Kristoff wins with his ATF snark.
Every liberal reminds me of Bush calling for tax-cuts because of 9-11. They all want to use chaotic times to get what they're obsessed with.
As if no other political party uses circumstances to push their agendas. And what are you implying with this words: "They all want to use chaotic times..."
Delete