On Wednesday, two days after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding 178, the media coverage of the tragedy reached new heights of sensationalism and outright hysteria.
The cable news networks, led by CNN, churned out one rumor after another, most of which quickly proved to be false. They set the tone for the rest of the corporate media, which at one point reported that a suspect had been taken into custody, only to have the report denied by Boston police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Despite repeated media claims that a suspect had been identified in video recordings of the bomb scene and promises of a joint press conference of federal, state and local officials to announce a major breakthrough in the case, the day ended as it began, with no suspects identified, no one having claimed responsibility, and no public information as to who planted the bombs or why. The press conference, which was supposed to include Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and FBI investigators, never materialized.
(...)
It is also the case that the kind of death and destruction that hit downtown Boston on Monday, and far worse, is inflicted by the United States government virtually on a daily basis in the form of drone strikes on towns and villages in either Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia. This cannot but have a dehumanizing and demoralizing effect on sections of the US population.
In its own way, the hysterical response of the corporate-controlled media to the Boston bombing is another reflection of the crisis and impasse of American society. Full story...
Related posts:
The cable news networks, led by CNN, churned out one rumor after another, most of which quickly proved to be false. They set the tone for the rest of the corporate media, which at one point reported that a suspect had been taken into custody, only to have the report denied by Boston police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Despite repeated media claims that a suspect had been identified in video recordings of the bomb scene and promises of a joint press conference of federal, state and local officials to announce a major breakthrough in the case, the day ended as it began, with no suspects identified, no one having claimed responsibility, and no public information as to who planted the bombs or why. The press conference, which was supposed to include Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and FBI investigators, never materialized.
(...)
It is also the case that the kind of death and destruction that hit downtown Boston on Monday, and far worse, is inflicted by the United States government virtually on a daily basis in the form of drone strikes on towns and villages in either Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia. This cannot but have a dehumanizing and demoralizing effect on sections of the US population.
In its own way, the hysterical response of the corporate-controlled media to the Boston bombing is another reflection of the crisis and impasse of American society. Full story...
Related posts:
- The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions...
- Boston explosions: 'Please don't be Arabs or Muslims'
- The empathy gap: from the Iraq war to drone warfare...
- The human cost of "the war on terror..."
- War, occupation and massacre...
- Sam Richards: A radical experiment in empathy (What if Iraq happened to you?)
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