Posted on 04/15/2013 3:26:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Plenty of outrage coming from Twitter about this and other instances of media speculation in the wake of the multiple explosions in Boston today, and it's worth discussing separately from Allahpundit's excellent tracking post on the main story. Wolf Blitzer is covering the story for CNN at its headquarters, and he filled the time by speculating that today's Patriot Day holiday in Massachusetts might have something to do with the apparent bombing of the Boston Marathon:
“One intriguing notion, one intriguing thought here, and I’m curious, Mike, and I’ll ask Matt to weigh in as well,” Blitzer said. “It is a state holiday, in addition to the Boston Marathon. It is a state holiday in Massachusetts today called Patriots Day, and who knows if that has anything at all to deal — to do with these, these twin explosions.”
Patriots Day is a holiday meant to commemorate the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Blitzer continued to inquire to about that possibility, asking if there might have been an event to mark the anniversary.
“As part of Boston’s — Massachusetts, I should say — Patriots Day, did you notice earlier in the day, Matt, any special Patriots Day events going on, anything pointing to a special day in Massachusetts?”
This is the problem with sitting in a studio with no information and three hours to fill. It’s the reason that I canceled my show today after the reports from Boston began to flood the zone, much of them unsubstantiated, contradictory, and impossible to verify quickly. Even in the five minutes in which I spoke, I felt the urge to offer all sorts of “analysis” based on no solid and substantiated evidence at all. It’s a human impulse to fill the unknown with spot analysis that attempts to make sense of the incomprehensible. Unfortunately, just as with the Tucson and Aurora shootings, that speculation by mainstream-media figures seems to fall very quickly into political paradigms and biases.
And perhaps Blitzer may be correct. Who knows? Well, Blitzer cannot know either, so any connection to his patter and reality would only be strictly coincidental. That’s why it’s better to refrain from speculating while an event unfolds. As the saying goes, it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Having done radio and television, I understand the urge that Blitzer didn’t resist. That doesn’t translate to Twitter and Nicholas Krystof’s inane politicking within minutes of the blast, though:
https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/323891060927512576
After getting reamed about it, Krystof admitted it was a “low blow”:
People jumping on me for criticizing Sen Repubs for blocking ATF appointments. ok, that was low blow. i take it back
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) April 15, 2013
Leave aside the fact that there may be good reasons for opposition to ATF nominations; how does Krystof think a confirmation hearing would have stopped the bombing from happening? I’d like to see the diagram for that process.
Erik Wemple wrote a few minutes ago that Twitter acts as a red light on bad reporting:
As if the media needed any reminder not to jump to conclusions about what was happening on the ground in Boston, Twitter came to the rescue, with numerous folks pleading for caution. …
There’s a lot more of this stuff out there, setting up an interesting social-media juxtaposition: The platform that’s most effective at churning out breaking news has become a place that preaches caution in breaking-news scenarios. Just in case editors and reporters need any reminders.
Well, apparently they do.
The left desperately wants it to be “right wingers” to justify the forthcoming repression.
Problem is that while a grand majority of these types of events will be leftists or Muslims, it just takes a single right-wing/Christian fundamentalist bombing somewhere in this nation to cause the Fedgov to go full-tilt repression with martial law declarations and church burnings.
It just takes one.
In a brief clip during a local 1/2-hour news break, the national (CBS) announcer also speculated about Patriots’ Day & “reports” of activity by “militia groups” among [unspecified] others.
Count on the MSM to get the narrative out ... Disgusting
Where was Bill Ayers when all this happened?
Or just one neighborhood guard to protect himself against a black while Chicago kills more children a month than happened in Connecticut, or an obscene abortionist who kills 9,000 times as many babies as died in Connecticut.
But remember MSM is not biased or full of liars. Ha!!!! (Extremem sarcasm)
It's also "Patriot's Day" but that's just a Massachusetts thing.
Donning my Sherlock Holmes cap, I'd conclude that the perp 1.) doesn't know a lot (less than even I do) about US sports events and 2.) doesn't know Patriots Day from Tax Day from the 4th of July from Memorial Day -- and is therefore not likely an American.
Hey, Herr Blitzer- who would hate Patriots Day more than your left wing buddies? Who would love it more than Tea partiers?
By the way, where were Ayers, Dorhn and Bowdoin? Their M.O., for sure!
Stupid idiots, April 19th is patriots day. http://www.nps.gov/mima/patriots-day.htm
Lefties had to be quick in their wishful speculation that the bombings were of “right wing” origin before the likely Muzz origins became obvious.
No Christian would deliberately cause harm to innocent bystanders, though the scumstream media would like you to think so!
Not so- I've been there. A lot of folks hang around to cheer in the latecomers, some of whom are running hurt but gutting it out. And the handicapped runners, and the senior citizens too.
I lost count, but I think that between the both of them, “Patriots Day “ was used 11 times.
Yep. It must be them Amish again...
Probably wishing there had been more deaths just like he wished that more policemen had died
They should just cancel this holiday. There are no real patriots left in Massachusetts.
Beat me to it. It should accompany every Wolf Blitzer thread (sorta like Catherine Zeta-Jones on Maureen Dowd threads)
I second that motion!
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