Posted on 07/19/2004 10:15:47 AM PDT by jimbo123
Last Tuesday morning, WomensWallStreet.com (WWS) published my first-person account of a recent Northwest Airlines flight that I took from Detroit to Los Angeles called Terror in the Skies, Again? A heads up about this article went out in our Daily Cents email -- our subscriber newsletter which primarily features financial tips and information for women.
On Wednesday morning, the WWS page views were unusually high, something like 10 times the normal amount. Apparently our readers had been emailing the article to their friends, family and colleagues and everyone was reading it.
By Thursday morning, that number had again multiplied ten-fold. It felt like the shampoo commercial from my youth: they told two friends, then they told two friends, then they told two friends. We sat in the WWS offices reading through your emails, taking stock of what you had to say. As the afternoon went on, the number of people reading the article continued to increase and the telephone was ringing off the hook.
And then a powerful thing happened. The mainstream media started calling.
The following statement was made by Daniel Drezner, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, on his website danieldrezner.com:
I received a mass email linking to this disturbing first-person account by Annie Jacobsen... I can say that the e-mail sent to me and other bloggers was cc-ed to movers and shakers in the mediaspere -- Bill Keller, David Ignatius, George Will, Anne Applebaum, and Nicholas D. Kristoff. So they're certainly aware of the story... I'd like to see real journalists dig deeper into this.
Dig they did. NBC was the first major news outlet to contact WomensWallStreet. The producer I spoke with on the telephone said the FBI had confirmed that 14 Syrians were on the flight, they confirmed the details about what happened upon landing in Los Angeles, and they said that the accounts from the flight attendants regarding what happened during the flight matched the accounts given by me and my husband to the FBI after we landed.
Then I spoke with a producer from ABC. She explained that she could not get Dave Adams, Head of Public Affairs of the Federal Air Marshal Services (FAM), on the phone. So she asked me some of the questions that she had wanted to ask him: Where exactly did this band of 14 musicians play? What was the name of the band? Who booked the band and what kind of music did they play? Did anyone follow up and actually witness these 14 men performing at their desert casino gig? I had none of the answers, even though I had asked Adams these exact questions myself when we spoke last week. The ABC producer also asked me other questions which had crossed my mind after hanging up with Adams. Did I know anything about their return flight on JetBlue? Did the men go back to Syria? Did I believe FAM's story?
(Excerpt) Read more at womenswallstreet.com ...
Make that Mrs. Jacobsen's story.
What if this guy was one of the 14 sent back on a different flight.
Maybe Mrs. Jacobsen needs some formal training in rational thought,
ping
http://www.washingtondispatch.com/opinion/article_9581.shtml
Many have already labeled Annie Jacobsen as a paranoid racist. I spoke with her by telephone at her home on Sunday night, “I have ignored the negatives and am determined to concentrate on the positives.” She continued, “I write financial articles for Womens Wall Street and print publications. I don’t want this to turn into liberal versus conservative, I just wanted to get the story out.” But it has been tough. No major ‘old media’ outlet picked up the story after it ran, it really only grew legs when James Toranto of the “Best of the Web Today” led with it on Friday. The ‘new media’ of Internet blogs then jumped at the story and according to Ms. Jacobsen that has resulted in “over 2 million visits to the Womens Wall Street website over the weekend.” The ‘old media’ is catching up, as she and her husband will appear on NBC Nightly News on Monday and also Good Morning America on Tuesday. She is also scheduled on Scarborough Country on MSNBC on Monday night.
Ping II.
Part 2 ping.
This story is toxic to the old media.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/
TONIGHT ON TV
'Scarborough Country'
Monday, 10 p.m. ET
Are Terrorists experimenting with a deadly new plan in America's skies? This woman says she saw it in action on her flight. Her story on a special Scarborough Country Tonight. 'Scarborough Country' regularly airs 10 p.m. ET weeknights. Also airs 3 a.m. ET
For some reason, I believe our administration asked big media to hold off on moving with this story until today. Drudge is quiet. Fox News is quiet. Something's up.
If the mainstream media has taken an interest in this story, they're figuring out a pro-Kerry spin for it, perhaps to criticize this administration's security efforts. If they can't trash GWB or someone connected to the administration, they won't pursue it.
Hmmmm. A reason to watch Scarborough?
Okay.
Must See TV!
Major networks and liberal mainstream newspapers will give this as little attention as they can get away with...
... it makes John "the threat of terrorism is exaggerated" Kerry look like a moron.
Brokaw tonight. And Diane Sawyer tomorrow morning, too.
They played at a wedding in the middle of nowhere in Iraq and got bombed by an American plane.
(I hope)
Do you have a link to part I? Somehow I missed it.
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