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Is Lack Of Big Media Coverage Of Oklahoma Explosion OK?
CBS News Public Eye ^ | October 10, 2005 | Vaughn Ververs

Posted on 10/10/2005 5:41:50 PM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia

Has there been more happening at the University of Oklahoma than hazing and all-nighters? The blogosphere, led by Michelle Malkin, has been chronicling the suspicious explosion at the University of Oklahoma just over a week ago, and wondering why the big media doesn’t appear interested.

According to most reports, Joel Hinrichs III was a young man with a history of depression who used a homemade explosive device to commit suicide just 100 yards or so from the school’s football stadium, which was filled with over 80,000 people at the time. Officials were quick to call the incident a suicide, but rumors and reports of Hinrichs’ attempts to buy large quantities of ammonium nitrate and ties to the Muslim community have raised a lot of questions and the answers thus far are not forthcoming.

The Oklahoma Daily, OU’s independent campus paper, lays blame on the FBI today for the confusion:

Remember, the FBI has commandeered this investigation. In doing so and by not telling anyone anything, they are only allowing the events of Oct. 2 to be misinterpreted over and over by people who are firm in believing something that is false and terribly dangerous.

For example, unsubstantiated claims that Hinrichs had been frequenting the Norman mosque have managed to seep onto television news broadcasts even though everyone we have contacted at the mosque says Hinrichs was never seen there.

So who is lying? Inherently, people should perceive the unfounded news broadcasts as the liars, but that doesn’t always happen. And even if only one person sees and believes such a report there or online, word of mouth can transmit that “truth” to hundreds or thousands within a matter of days.

Which is why it is undeniably the duty of the FBI to break its unctuous vow of silence and talk to somebody. The longer the feds delay in doing so, the more they become equally responsible for misinformed social reactions as the hacks who started these rumors in the first place. Many, Malkin included, have wondered where the MSM is on this story. As the Oklahoma Daily editorial notes, local television has covered it and a quick Google search turns up (sometimes conflicting) reports in local and regional newspapers but no major media outlets appear to have picked up the story yet. We asked CBS News national editor Bill Felling, who told us the network is looking into the story. Let’s hope so, it’s one worth airing, whatever the facts are.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: media; mediabias; newsblackout; oubombing; terrorism
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To: RegulatorCountry
That worked in the past, with terrorist events that were more abstract, with no surviving firsthand witnesses.

And before the Internet.

Actually I question the extent to which the "we gotta keep this knowledge out of the hands of the public" really exists.

Its the premise for the vast majority of conspiracy shows and "space invasion" shows on TV, so much so that it becomes sort of a cliche.

But the government is just too porous to keep such a secret, and there is a Mayer Bloomberg somewhere who is going to see it as his duty to protect citizens first and protect sources second.

If the FBI is sitting on this story, they are probably doing it to run down leads.

But that still leaves me wondering why the press is sitting on it.

21 posted on 10/10/2005 6:18:06 PM PDT by konaice
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To: konaice; PhiKapMom

A Freeper did, and I pinged her to the thread. Perhaps she'll repost her findings.

And bear in mind: no camera caught the explosion, either. That doesn't mean it didn't happen.


22 posted on 10/10/2005 6:22:21 PM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: konaice

"But that still leaves me wondering why the press is sitting on it."

Well, the subject of this thread pretty much lays it on the line. They think all us yahoos down in flyover country are going to start rioting and attacking ME people, if we ever find out what is actually happening. That's why the silence.

Funny thing is, if it ever comes down to that much social disorder, I'll wager it will happen in the big, old-line industrial cities. You know, the sort of places that already, routinely have riots after major sports events.


23 posted on 10/10/2005 6:24:37 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry (Esse Quam Videre)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
The blogosphere, led by Michelle Malkin, has been chronicling the suspicious explosion at the University of Oklahoma just over a week ago, and [I'm] wondering why the big media doesn’t appear interested.

Whorealdo found out there's no one whose stretcher he can help carry on-camera? Gerta found out there are no teenage blondes involved? Blo'Reilly would have to admit he wasn't looking out for Joel Hinrichs III?

24 posted on 10/10/2005 6:29:34 PM PDT by solitas (So what if I support an OS that has fewer flaws than yours? 'Mystic' dual 500 G4's, OSX.4.2)
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It isn't okay. A frigging suicide bomb goes off 100 yards from a full football stadium and the elite media doesn't cover it all. Yet they don't mind giving hundreds of hours to every pretty lil' white girl who disapears or to shark attacks, or whatever other nonsense.


25 posted on 10/10/2005 6:31:15 PM PDT by SmoothTalker
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To: SmoothTalker

I never said it WAS okay....


26 posted on 10/10/2005 6:35:57 PM PDT by solitas (So what if I support an OS that has fewer flaws than yours? 'Mystic' dual 500 G4's, OSX.4.2)
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To: konaice; PhiKapMom; All
I would like to add, PhiKapMom has been doing what so-called "investigative journalists" should have beed doing--but obviously have not. They just blithely report that "no cameras caught him trying to enter the stadium" without bothering to so much as drive by the stadium, let alone do a little recon on foot to see if those cameras would have been aimed properly to catch him trying to enter--or if, for instance, most of those cameras might have been brand, shiney new, and perhaps just put there very recently, like, for instance, Sunday morning.

Nope, they're just too lazy, it's just too easy to parrot whatever Boren and his minions tell them.

Hats off, PhiKapMom. You're a much better reporter than any of them, bar none!

27 posted on 10/10/2005 6:37:26 PM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: MizSterious

"beed" should have been "been"--note to self: next time use spell check.


28 posted on 10/10/2005 6:38:26 PM PDT by MizSterious (Now, if only we could convince them all to put on their bomb-vests and meet in Mecca...)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Good editorial.
PS: Is this "public eye" thing the way CBS is trying to stay relevant in the blogosphere?


29 posted on 10/10/2005 6:38:58 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana (No amnesty needed...My ancestors proudly served. [remodel of an old '70s bumper sticker])
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To: MizSterious
I would like to add, PhiKapMom has been doing what so-called "investigative journalists" should have beed doing

So I've been told. I will try to search for her post, but this sort of info can't appear in too many places, so I'm hopeing she reposts.

30 posted on 10/10/2005 6:41:49 PM PDT by konaice
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To: MizSterious
"beed" should have been "been"--note to self: next time use spell check.

Spell checker must be the Eubonics version...

31 posted on 10/10/2005 6:42:53 PM PDT by konaice
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To: konaice

"Eubonics"

Eminem?


32 posted on 10/10/2005 6:45:30 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry (Esse Quam Videre)
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To: konaice
There is a new camera already installed at Gate 10 (I thought it was Gate 9 but checked today when I was on campus for something else). Anyone familiar with OK knows we have a lot of wind that blows around dirt and anything black and shiny doesn't stay that way for long that is why I assume this is a new camera at Gate 10. I did see video cameras focused on the back of the ticket books but at Gate 1 -- absolutely nothing and I mean nothing. I could not find any cameras on the gates except for Gate 10 which looked to be new along with the one now in the parking garage as you leave.

I did see a white truck working around Gate 7 and 8 when I drove by today -- the kind that installs satellite dishes, etc.

I could be wrong but I had someone with me today and they observed the same thing so we could both be wrong.

33 posted on 10/10/2005 6:47:54 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
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To: MizSterious

Oh yeah, we're supposed to believe anyone from within that mosque when they tell us that Hinlich had no connection with the mosque. Not exactly credible sources.


34 posted on 10/10/2005 6:48:07 PM PDT by WVNan
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To: hispanarepublicana

They just repeated that editorial from the OU Daily which I still believe has Boren's fingerprints on it -- sure doesn't sound like an editorial from a journalism major. He has done it before so I am extremely suspicious this is another one of those times.


35 posted on 10/10/2005 6:49:18 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
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To: WVNan

Isn't it some kind of Muslim doctrine that they are expected to lie to the "infidels"?


36 posted on 10/10/2005 6:50:04 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana (No amnesty needed...My ancestors proudly served. [remodel of an old '70s bumper sticker])
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To: hispanarepublicana

Exactly. It is perfectly fine for them to lie to an infidel.


37 posted on 10/10/2005 6:51:29 PM PDT by WVNan
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To: PhiKapMom

"I could be wrong but I had someone with me today and they observed the same thing so we could both be wrong."

We haven't seen anything yet, as far as spin. This See-BS thing lays the groundwork. Did you snap a few JPEGS at the stadium with your phone or a camera? And, would you post them here, if you did?


38 posted on 10/10/2005 6:52:36 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry (Esse Quam Videre)
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To: citizenmike
I would like to know if it can be verified that Hinrichs attempted to gain entry to the stadium.

According to the local news channel, several witnesses say that he did. The first TV segment said that he tried to enter the stadium three times at two different gates, which is pretty circumstantial.

Another recent news sources quotes a student who says that a guard told him he did. But it would seem that the guards have been told to shut up, so I don't know how it can be verified beyond all doubt.

39 posted on 10/10/2005 6:55:07 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: VRWCTexan

Exactly, if the story dos not make bush look bad, then they simply dont care for the most part


40 posted on 10/10/2005 7:16:47 PM PDT by BigTom85 (Proud Gun Owner and Member of NRA)
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