Faux Outrage from FOX "News" Over Boston Bomber in Rolling Stone

Image from source, NewsCorpse

Okay, let me see if I can wrap my brain around this "scandal." Rolling Stone--long a blend of pop culture, rock 'n' roll and political journalism--has a picture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber--on their cover. The picture is totes adorbs as the kids say, with DT all fluffy-haired and scruffy and cute. He looks a bit like one of my nephews. And because Rolling Stone is seen as a liberal magazine, this is seen as. . .glamorizing a killer? Okay, I can see that raising the ire of some, maybe even causing a bit of a flurry at newsstands (as much as there still are such things).

But since FOX "News" has turned this into their latest 24/7 outrage, it must be another left/right divide kind of story, and because FOX "News" is the chief antagonist, it must also have a bit of a bullshit quotient to it. Thanks to Mark, the blogger at NewsCorpse for once again saving me from having to do any actual research. Of COURSE there's a bullshit quotient. In fact, FOX Nation--the ugly, nasty internet brother of the cable channel has used the exact same photo, as far back as April 19. Surprise!

In Rolling Stone's defense, the blurb calls him a monster. And artistically, the juxtaposition of a harmless looking teenager against the story of what he really is, works. It's only the context of being "On the cover of the Rolling Stone!" that you can call this a glamorization, to my way of thinking. And I guess we'd just have to comb through their past covers before squawking about this one. But that's just me.

[Excerpt]

OUTRAGE! Fox News ‘Glamorized’ Boston Bomber Three Months Before Rolling Stone

For a network that perpetually displays an “Alert” graphic regardless of whether they are reporting on a car bombing in Afghanistan or the opening of a Hooters in Tacoma, it is not surprising that Fox News’ hair-trigger Outrage Detector is stuck on “Apocalypse Now.” The standard facial expression of a Fox anchor at any given moment is an eye-bulging, jaw-dropping, sweat-dripping, fright mask of horror. . .

Read more at: NewsCorpse

America the Stupid: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, The Boston Bomber, Has Groupies

I can't even. . .

[Excerpt]

#FreeJahar: Boston Bombings Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Teenage Fans Insist He's 'Too Beautiful To Be A Terrorist'

An online movement calling to free Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is gathering pace – thanks to an army of teenage girls who believe he is “too beautiful to be a terrorist". Nicknamed "Jahar", the 19-year-old, who is currently in custody and has been interrogated by the FBI over the April 15 explosions, has emerged as an unlikely heartthrob in the wake of the attacks, which killed three and maimed hundreds. . .

Ain't he dreamy? Image from HuffPo

Read more at: Huffington Post

Boston Bombing Doesn't Somehow Negate Gun Concerns

Yep. Special kind of moron.

Bad analogies make me crazy. Oh, I know, I'm sure I've made a few, not every attempt at cleverness is a success. And in a world that is now ruled by social media memes, it seems even the most horrific happening is (quickly) turned into them. Some are truly clever, thought provoking and memorable. Others strain so hard to make their point, they hit you over the head like an anvil. And the conservative attempts at "humor?" Well, they're often better left unsaid.

Several days ago when there was a mass stabbing, there were goofy memes playing off of "knife control," entirely missing the point that nobody died in that unfortunate event.  And now, with the Boston Marathon bombing, the pressure cookers used to make the bombs have become the new "isn't this clever" item to mock gun control. First, let me say that conservative attempts at humor are often  groan-worthy. But it is often difficult to articulate what it is that bugs you about it, the weak attempt at humor, the bad analogy, the poor execution. . . Mostly, it's the actual sentiment behind the "joke," the lame argument that is being made, that is actually believed by a whole group of people.

So, it is wonderful when you find the perfect encapsulation of what bugs you about one of these things. And here it is.

[Excerpt]

If you think Boston is a reason to abandon gun safety laws, you're a special kind of moron

. . .Let's imagine a scenario in which roughly 4,000 Americans have been killed by weaponized pressure cookers between last December and now. I'm willing to bet Campfield would be fairly beside himself demanding we stop bad people from getting pressure cookers, and the idea of letting people who have already have a history of assaulting people with pressure cookers buy more pressure cookers, due only to our own unwillingness to check up on those things, would sound so stupid that nobody would even propose such a thing. Let's imagine a world in which, whenever a child finds a pressure cooker under his parents' bed, there's a good chance that child dies. We'd damn well be figuring out what to do about parents who leave goddamn pressure cookers under their beds. Yes, you can kill someone with a pressure cooker, or a spoon, or a piece of stout twine—but there's nothing better for killing people than an actual weapon. . .

Read more at: DailyKos

FOX "News" Hosts Blame America First

Image from source, NewsCorpse

September 11, 2001 is simultaneously a recent event in American history, and a very long time ago. And it is difficult to put yourself back into the mindset we had and lived with that day, and in the days, weeks, months and years that followed. While we got a little reminder this week with the events in Boston, there were marked differences.

Now, obviously, the events are not directly comparable. We don't know the motives of the two bombers, and we don't even know if they are tied to any particular movement, or if they are just a couple of assholes with their own agenda. The scale of the attack was also much smaller, and the loss of life much more restricted. But if 9/11 hadn't happened, think of how it would have hit us. But beyond the scale, there were differences in how people reacted.

C'mon, admit it. These Chicks took a lot of
undeserved shit.

After 9/11, there was no right, no left. There were no Republicans or Democrats. There may have been a few rogue contrarians, but they were in the extreme minority. Those of us who did not vote for and were no fans of Bush/Cheney held our tongues. For a long time. We may have muttered under our breath (and Bill Maher lost his job for saying something "too soon"), but the general consensus was that we were Americans first, and all else was secondary. This ultimately became opressive, as--I
think--partisan conservatives took this to be the new normal, and expected everyone to play along with their agenda from then on.

So, as people started to chafe at some of the Bush/Cheney policies, and the two wars (particularly Iraq), and many of the new perceived losses of freedom (Patriot Act, Torture, Guantanamo), dissent was met with swift and viscous condemnation. We were un-American. Unpatriotic. "Blame America firsters." People who criticized the Bush Administration were chastened for attacking America, during wartime. The Dixie Chicks weathered a wholly out-of-scale attack by conservatives after a mild insult of Bush one of them uttered on stage. Even as late as 2008, conservatives blasted Barack Obama for not being sufficiently patriotic, for not wearing a flag pin, for not (apparently) standing at attention for the National Anthem, and other things.

Nuge the stooge, conservative hero.

But these days, with Obama in the White House, none of those things matter at all. We are still at war, but there is no attack of the President, his administration, or even the entire government, that is out of bounds for conservatives. They can accuse him of being an un-American, evil, Marxist, socialist, Maoist, communist, homosexual, adulterous, Nazi, statist, Kenyan Muslim who has as his explicit agenda destroying America. Notable celebrities such as Ted Nugent--quite unlike the Dixie Chicks--can come this|close to threatening to assassinate the President, and still draw air, but no condemnation from the right. And after an attack on this country as happened this week, the right is ready and eager to blame the government and the President for it. And then of course, there is FOX "News."

[Excerpt]

Fox News Hosts Join The ‘Blame America’ Firsters

Shortly after the attacks on 9/11, a stunned nation struggled to explain how such noxious hatred could have formed and congealed into the heinous plot that took the lives of so many innocent people. In a statement that still ranks amongst the most feeble-minded insults to America’s intelligence, George W. Bush proclaimed that “they hate us for our freedom. . .”

Read more at: NewsCorpse 

Boston Berzerk

As I type this, I'm up late (or early, I suppose) into the early hours of my birthday. I should be sleeping, so that I can get up early and have a wonderful birthday breakfast. But there is an unfolding, and utterly bananas story coming out of Boston.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is too much conflicting and contradictory information to report with any level of accuracy. I'm watching MSNBC, which seems to be really trying to not overstep into too much speculation. Everything is qualified and clearly said to be guesswork when it is, with endless repeatings of the facts as they are known, and then just what they're hearing. The skittishness is understandable, given the bad reporting by The New York Post, CNN and FOX "News" earlier in the week.

But the gist is that a police run-in with a seemingly unrelated criminal element in Watertown, with an officer shot, a hail of gunfire in a fire fight, a pressure cooker bomb being "lit" and thrown at the cops, and a very likely but still tentative naming of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. . .one dead? One on the loose? Possibly three of them?

It's really unclear, though even as I type this, it would seem that they're getting surer that these are the guys that the FBI was looking for. But even that doesn't prove that they were the actual bombers. . .or the only bombers.

Oddly, some sources are saying that one of the guys--the one on the loose--is a guy named Sunil Tripathi, who has been missing for a month. I don't know what that's about, but there you go. I'm sure this story will continue to morph, and some things will turn out not to be true, other things play out, etc. But this is going to be a movie or miniseries one day. Count on it.

UPDATE: As I suspected, this Tripathi kid is NOT one of the names of the two suspected bombers. I'm not sure how his name got in the mix, but I sure didn't think he looked like either of them. More later.

[Excerpt]

Explosions, fatal shooting in Boston area

Two men identified by law enforcement sources as the Boston Marathon attack suspects — armed with explosives and guns — battled authorities in a Boston suburb early Friday morning, unleashing chaos until cops took one of the men into custody, and the other fled, the sources said.
Officials later said the the suspect taken into custody died. . .

Read more at: NBC News

CNN Blows It in Attempt to "Be First" to Report Arrest in Boston Marathon Bombing

To be fair, FOX "News" and AP jumped on this bogus bandwagon too. . .

Seth MacFarlane Condemns Family Guy Boston Bombing Conspiracy Theory

Seth MacFarlane, image from source Raw Story

As predicted, the conspiracy theorists are already out with a slew of half-baked conspiracy theories around the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15. One of them focuses on Seth MacFarlane and his popular cartoon, Family Guy. Unsurprisingly, MacFarlane isn't pleased with this.*

[Excerpt]

Seth MacFarlane condemns ‘abhorrent’ Family Guy mash-up of Boston Marathon bombing

“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane condemned a doctored online clip of the show depicting its star using a cellphone to trigger explosions at the Boston Marathon.
The fake clip was based on scenes from an episode of the cult animated series which aired last month, and which was pulled by broadcaster Fox from online service Hulu.com because of sensitivity after Monday’s blasts. . .

Read more at: Raw Story


*If you really want to send one of these wing-nutters into a tizzy, be sure to tell them that MacFarlane was supposed to be on one of the planes that crashed on September 11, 2001, but was hung over and missed his flight. So he says. Maybe he was tipped off? Okay, wing-nuts. Go!