Let's not soft pedal this: Reddit conducted a lynch. It was the epitome of what some argue is the "new journalism" in extreme form and showed up its many, many weaknesses. This was a despicable episode. Whatever its faults, I'll take the NYTimes, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal - and the rest of the "mainstream media," whatever their faults. I trust reporters and I trust editors. I do not trust anonymous bloggers sitting in their basements, howling at the moon.
I have my own criticisms of CNN reporting news before it's 100% confirmed but you - and most of the commenters here - aren't at all fair to news organizations scrambling under tremendous deadline pressure to get things right. Also, you read into comments made by King and Blitzer insinuations that simply aren't borne out. Given recent history, those questions are reasonable to ask. To suggest otherwise is to pretend that we live in a very different reality. And given the pictures released this afternoon by the FBI, those earlier suspicions may prove to be accurate. That said, I agree news orgs ought to report what they know and use sensitivity. But this gang-up is just utterly unfair.
My preference: Would everybody just chill the hell out already? We know NOTHING about the identity of the bomber(s) while the authorities conduct their investigation. Let's just wait and see what they turn up after the facts are in. At that point, we ought to draw conclusions about next steps. Seriously, I'm fed up with the politicization of this tragedy. All sides - just take a chill pill and shut up for now.
Question: So would Israeli intervention in arming the rebels be a positive or a negative?
Let's not soft pedal this: Reddit conducted a lynch. It was the epitome of what some argue is the "new journalism" in extreme form and showed up its many, many weaknesses. This was a despicable episode. Whatever its faults, I'll take the NYTimes, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal - and the rest of the "mainstream media," whatever their faults. I trust reporters and I trust editors. I do not trust anonymous bloggers sitting in their basements, howling at the moon.
I have my own criticisms of CNN reporting news before it's 100% confirmed but you - and most of the commenters here - aren't at all fair to news organizations scrambling under tremendous deadline pressure to get things right. Also, you read into comments made by King and Blitzer insinuations that simply aren't borne out. Given recent history, those questions are reasonable to ask. To suggest otherwise is to pretend that we live in a very different reality. And given the pictures released this afternoon by the FBI, those earlier suspicions may prove to be accurate. That said, I agree news orgs ought to report what they know and use sensitivity. But this gang-up is just utterly unfair.
My preference: Would everybody just chill the hell out already? We know NOTHING about the identity of the bomber(s) while the authorities conduct their investigation. Let's just wait and see what they turn up after the facts are in. At that point, we ought to draw conclusions about next steps. Seriously, I'm fed up with the politicization of this tragedy. All sides - just take a chill pill and shut up for now.