Boston: The MSM's Exploded 'Journalism'

Over the years, I have watched via Internet video countless IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosions detonated on American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, when I read the news of the Boston Marathon bombing of April 15^th, and watched the videos of the incident, I was certain that it was a terrorist bombing that killed three people and injured over 170, some losing their limbs, and not an exploding fire hydrant or propane-fueled hot dog stand.

Then came the avalanche of hastily-written bulletins and aired news reports with earnest-looking reporters, half-thought-out educated guesses, "expert" speculations, and plain "yellow" journalism and words and images strung together just to fill print space and air time.

Shortly after the Boston bombings flung bodies and limbs and shrapnel over a Boylston Avenue sidewalk, the Mainstream Media itself exploded to reveal the debris of modern journalism.  

Certain that it was indeed a terrorist act, and once the authorities had confirmed that two pressure-cooker IEDs had been set off, I began researching and writing a column about it, and attempted to sift through all the cascading hysteria and hair-pulling and come up with some solid facts and conclusions. I found it virtually impossible to compose a coherent article on the subject. The haphazard stories of who was responsible or not responsible for the bombings, and whom the authorities had arrested or not arrested, or whom the authorities were looking for, kept flickering in the news and my mind like a badly edited silent movie whose last nitrate frames had disintegrated. My mind shut down, and refused to function as it usually would when addressing an important topic.

I gave up on the effort and decided to wait it out. That patience paid off, for the terrorists turned out to be two Chechen brothers who "inexplicably" turned jihadist. They were Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26.   But in the meantime, some distracting but interesting developments also caught my attention, and none of them reflect well on either the MSM or the Obama administration or on the FBI.

There was the episode of the "running man" seen in a security camera video fleeing the scene of one explosion. He was reportedly tackled by a civilian and somehow turned over to the police. Whether or not he was the same 20-year-old Saudi student who suffered burns and was taken to a local hospital, or someone else entirely, hasn't been confirmed. His name and that of the civilian who apprehended him remain unknown.

The student was Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi. Photographs of a smiling, geeky-looking kid in a hospital gown were published. He looked like he wouldn't hurt a fly. It turned out that he was definitely a "person of interest" because his family has terrorist ties. Not long after the bombing, both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John "Swift Boat" Kerry, he of the bogus combat film, combat medals, and French pedigree, met with Saudi officials in Washington and arranged for the kid to be deported back to Saudi Arabia.

Walid Shoebat remarked and provided this information about Al-Harbi's own antecedents:

Perhaps a quick look at the Arabic sources should raise the eyebrows of every American relative to the extent of the problem at hand. Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are steeped in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda. Out of a list of 85 terrorists listed by the Saudi government shows several of Al-Harbi clan to have been active fighters in Al-Qaeda:

#15 Badr Saud Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#73 Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awufi Al-Harbi
#26 Khalid Salim Uwaid Al-Lahibi Al-Harbi
#29 Raed Abdullah Salem Al-Thahiri Al-Harbi
#43 Abdullah Abdul Rahman Muhammad Al-Harbi (leader)
#60 Fayez Ghuneim Humeid Al-Hijri Al-Harbi

             Then you have Al-Harbi clan members in Gitmo:

Salim Salman Awadallah Al-Sai’di Al-Harbi
Majid Abdullah Hussein Al-Harbi
Muhammad Abdullah Saqr Al-Alawi Al-Harbi
Ghanem Abdul Rahman Ghanem Al-Harbi
Muhammad Atiq Uwaid Al-Awfi Al-Harbi

In the meantime, Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano answered questions about the Saudi student, as visibly displeased with them as a Cub Scout den mother being asked about the birds and the bees:

“I am unaware of anyone who is being deported for national security concerns at all related to Boston. I don’t know where that rumor came from,” Napolitano said....“I’m not going to answer that question. It is so full of misstatements and misapprehensions that it’s just not worthy of an answer,” she responded. “There has been so much reported on this that’s wrong, I can’t even begin to tell you congressman. We will provide you with accurate information as it becomes available.”

Or picture the late cross-eyed comedic actor Marty Feldman, mugging for the camera, with his arms crossed, pointing in opposite directions. Then the FBI issued a statement about the confusion that reigned in the MSM about the bombing suspects:

Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.

The press had published shots of several Middle Eastern-looking men in the Marathon crowd. They looked nothing like the Chechen suspects who were ultimately cornered.

But Jeff Baum, who lost both legs in the explosion, was able to identify the younger Chechen (I can't force myself to call him an American citizen, a status he was granted on September 11^th, 2012), Dzhokhar, because he and Baum looked into each other's eyes just before Dzhokhar left the bomb bag at Baum's feet. Then there's the FBI itself, forbidden to "think" Islamic, which already had a file on the older brother, Tamerlan. It was deep-sixed when, alerted by the Russian government, the agency found "nothing" disturbing about him. The London Telegraph reported:

Michael McCaul, the chair of House Homeland Security Committee, said the FBI must explain why it failed to keep track of Tsarnaev after the 2011 interview, particularly after he visited his family in Dagestan, which is a known centre of Islamist militancy and training facilities.

"If he [Tamerlan Tsarnaev] was on the radar and they let him go, if he was on the Russians' radar, why wasn't a flag put on him, some sort of customs flag?" Mr. McCaul asked on CNN, adding that there were clear signs that Tsarnaev had been radicalized during his trip.

Other than resorting to stammering that it was incompetent, the FBI had no comment on these failings. And exploiting a chance to pontificate on the bombing, Obama at first acknowledged that it was an act of terrorism, but then reverted to type and called it a "tragedy." Excuse me, Mr. President, but accidents and acts of nature are "tragedies." Terrorist plots to kill and maim are terrorism. They don’t live in the same moral or metaphysical room. Or would you rather call the Boston bombings "racetrack violence"?

Other "experts" were called in to stem the panic and smooth out the rough edges of the ongoing reporting.

Such as David Axelrod, aka Axle Grease, former senior advisor to Obama and now a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC, who said about the Boston Marathon bombing: "...let's not put any inference into this, let's just make clear that we're going to get the people responsible."

That is: Let's not be beastly to the Muslims or Islam. For all we knew, he inferred, it might have been the ghost of Timothy McVeigh who planted the bombs, or Daffy Duck. Let's not jump to hasty conclusions. Let's not infer that it's been Muslims over the last twenty years who have exploded bombs in crowds, that isn't justification to imagine that they were at it again. Muslims, you know, and as Obama reminded us in Cairo, have contributed so much to Western civilization – except when they're trying to destroy it.

Axle Grease apparently contracted Chris Matthews' version of Legionnaires Disease. He can't rule out violent anti-government radicals:

"The word has taken on a different meaning since 9/11. You use those words and it means something very specific in people’s mind," Axelrod told NBC News' Chuck Todd. "And I’m sure what was going through the president’s mind is — we really don’t know who did this — it was tax day."

He continued, “Was it someone who was pro — you know, you just don’t know. And so I think his attitude is, let’s not put any inference into this, let’s just make clear that we’re going to get the people responsible.”

What's with this "we" business, since Axle Grease is no longer in the White House? And, "we're" going to get the people who did this" -- just as "we" got the people responsible for Benghazi? You know, we (that is, you and I and everyone else with at least half a scruple and a brain pan larger than a brontosaurus's) have had to exert extraordinary patience while sifting through all the vacuous and ambiguous information that has been filtered out to the press and then through the press to us to ascertain with some certainty that this was indeed a jihadist, probably Al Qada "strike," one that has been promised for some time by our non-enemies and devotees of the "religion of peace."

The liberal media preferred that a white "right-wing extremist" be found responsible for the bombs, but the whirlpool of flotsam and jetsam of evidence in the end didn't conform to the media's wishes. Still, Chris Matthews and several other "experts" proffered their own conclusions before the culprits were killed or caught.  

News Busters reported that Matthews opined:

Just hours after explosions rocked the Boston Marathon on Monday, Chris Matthews speculated, "Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right." He then reconsidered and suggested, "...That’s not a good category, just extremists, let’s call them that.

During live coverage, the Hardball host highlighted a possible explosion at John F. Kennedy's presidential library and thought this could be a personal attack on the Democratic Party: "...But going after the Kennedy Library, not something at Bunker Hill, not something from the Freedom Trail or anything that kind of historic, but a modern political figure of the Democratic Party. Does that tell you something?" (Police are now considering the incident at the JFK library to be fire-related.) One can only guess what it tells Chris.

Then Matthews had this exchange with Clint Van Zandt:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, Michael, Tax Day today. That came up. You know, I was thinking of all the iconic events, or being told about them today. Of course, I knew it was Tax Day because I got them in. But of course, it's Patriots Day. It's also the Boston Marathon. And would you as an expert be thinking domestic at this point? I don't think Tax Day means a whole lot to the Arab world or Islamic world or the, certainly not to al Qaeda in terms of their world. It doesn't have any iconic significance.

CLINT VAN ZANDT, FORMER FBI PROFILER: At this point, as an investigator, you don't want to shut down any options, but based upon the type of explosive that appears, the size of the explosive, the way it was done, this is well within the capability of somebody with too much time in front of the internet who was looking up bombs and who hates government, who hates America. For whatever his or her reasons for doing something like this, this is well within the realm of one person.

Do not expect Matthews or Axle Grease to eat their words. Liberals never apologize for their errors, slanders, or libels. They just change the subject. They're protected by the equivalent of diplomatic immunity. As with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the truth doesn't matter if it doesn't fit the fatal fantasy world of the Leftist agenda. Truth is a bourgeoisie invention and device to fool the citizenry. What's done is done and let's move on. It doesn't matter. The wise Caucasian lady said so.

National Public Radio, that taxpayer-supported, soft porn propaganda "news" outlet for the federal government that broadcasts tearful documentaries about the plight and travails of Mexican migrant mothers and immigrant Muslims, and celebratory ones about wolves reintroduced into their original stomping grounds so they can feed on cattle and sheep, shared Matthews' tingle-laden obsession with right-wingers who as everyone knows have left thousands of bodies blown to bits strewn over American malls and marathons. On April 17^th, Dina Temple-Raston, on "All Things Considered," opined:

The thinking, as we’ve been reporting, is that this is a domestic, extremist attack….April is a big month for anti-government and right-wing individuals….There’s the Columbine anniversary. There’s Hitler’s birthday. There’s the Oklahoma City bombing. The assault on the Branch Dividian compound in Waco.

A river of information flows through Temple-Raston's mind, so it was natural that she went phishing, not for credit cards or personal information, but for data that fit her delusions. I guess Hitler wouldn't have much minded having his birthday of April 20^th moved back to American Tax Day and Boston Marathon Bombing Day of April 15^th.

Finally, the New York Times ran an unbelievably sympathetic article on the Tsarnaev brothers. That article has now been revised to seem less sympathetic. The DC Caller reported on April 19^th:

The sympathetic portrayal of the men — who murdered three civilians, including a child, wounded 180 people, murdered one unsuspecting police officer and wounded another officer — was met with quick condemnation on social media networks.

Since The Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher took a screen-grab of the article, the Times changed the layout of the page to one more seemingly aware of the hundreds of victims and their friends and families, the entire United States and much of the non-terrorist planet.

The Times was caught with its pants down, and after being excoriated by the "social media," it hastened to pull up its pants and rewrite history, a la Nineteen Eighty-Four. We've always been at war with Eastasia, right, and not with Eurasia? And Chechnya is just a kind of Russian Detroit, it couldn't possibly turn out vicious terrorists, just poor lost souls who had trouble "fitting in."

Among others, Daniel Greenfield and Walid Shoebat have both investigated the backgrounds of the Saudis and the Tsarnaev brothers. Much of the information on both Tsarnaev brothers was readily available on the Internet. But the FBI and DHS have been too busy monitoring the email and Facebook accounts of ordinary Americans, to bother with time bombs waiting to explode. Greenfield, in his column, "Refusing to be Terrorized," concluded a comment on Obama's insipid speech and on the whole "let's move on with our lives" mentality:

While we refuse to be terrorized, those who insist on terrorizing us continue swarming into this country. A hundred Muslim nations have sent their progeny to live their tortured lives here, until they grow tired of infidel rule and decide to do what they do back home. Kill. And then we once again can refuse to be terrorized at an interfaith service in which the clergy of the murderers stand side by side with the clergy of the murdered.

The day may come when we finally refuse to be terrorized. They will not do it by going back to do their part for the next shopping season, the next interfaith service and the next healing speech. They will refuse to be terrorized by closing the door on terrorism for good.

What is this column about? It is about the price paid for evasion of the knowledge, the evasion of the identify of our enemy, which is Islam. Clinton, the two Bushes, and Obama have all claimed that the West is not at war with Islam. But at the risk of repeating myself, and reiterating what writers such as Greenfield and Shoebat and Steve Emerson and Ali Hirsi and others have pointed out: Islam is at war with the West.

And that won't do, it's too close to identifying their own corrupt souls or minds. They're all James Taggarts (Atlas Shrugged), and you know what happened to him after Galt told him in the torture room, "I told you, didn't I?" And Taggart crumbles when he sees the nature of his own evil. It's that little clump of malevolent black glop that's the core of his being. That's the MSM, that's Obama, that's his wife, that's Napolitano, and the Clintons. The roll call is long with dozens and dozens of names.

They can't permit themselves to concede the truth or even glimpse at it without destroying themselves. So they dance around it and look for scapegoats, for fall guys, for anything that will reveal that they're no better than the Chechen brothers or their family or OBL. That disguise is several onion-skin layers deep. If tyranny -- I mean, real brass knuckles, gulag style, firing squad tyranny -- ever comes to this country, the MSM will have played a large part in making it  possible. They'll all be complicit, whether they're with local TV affiliates or are major broadcasters and newspapers.

Someone might counter: But they're ignorant, they're innocent of any malice.

 No, they're not. They try too hard at it. They refuse to think.

Yes, the "lone wolf" mantra is popular with the MSM. The only conspiracies credible to MSM are right-wing ones, or patriotic ones, or anti-government ones, or anti-tax ones. Islam, an ideology festering right under the MSM's noses, is not a credible candidate. It is off-limits. After all, Muslims are nice people, they wouldn't hurt a flea, except infidels of all stripes. The government says we must "respect" Islam. Yes, Islam, the paragon of ideological evil, an ideology whose means and ends are destruction for destruction's sake.

I'm guessing that Obama's ilk would have advised the Jews at Auschwitz that they ought to have respected Nazism.

You really must ask yourself: how can so many "journalists" be so fatally delusional?

A clue to that condition is that their own ideology is copacetic with Islam's, and if they ever questioned Islam's means and ends, they must also question their own means and ends. And if one bans a fact from one's thinking – that is, if one deliberately evades or represses a fact necessary to reach a factual conclusion – that makes one as culpable as the terrorist.

And that is how and why the MSM's claim to "objective journalism" can explode in a furious, week-long, panic-driven tarantella of paroxysms of wishing reality away, of denying that A is A.