Over at HorsesAss, Darryl has criticized the quality of journalism at the Seattle Times. This would be a “man bites dog story,” if it were not that the Times has descended into the fish wrapper class of AP wire reflection. The more important ssues here are two. First, if the rumor is true, then we badly need our leaders to broaden their focus. An Islamic religious nut or a Skin head religious< note is just as deadly to us sane folks. Second, Darryl’s just the facts approach is exactly what should have been in the Seattle Fishwrapper Times.
from Darryl:
Here is what we learn about today’s arrest of a suspect in the MLK-day bombing from the Seattle Times (my emphasis):
An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested east of Spokane. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.
The suspects are apparently affiliated with white supremacists.
Interesting…these two paragraphs imply that there was something about today’s arrest—perhaps a statement from that FBI source—that linked the suspect up with a white supremacist group.
I wanted to know more about the evidence for the connection besides simple geographic proximity. And what about the other of the “suspects.” Only one person was mentioned as being arrested.
So I searched other media sources for more details. Here is what I find in the AP account (my emphasis):
KHQ-TV of Spokane reported that federal and local law enforcement officers had surrounded a home near Colville, Wash., about 80 miles northwest of Spokane. Two T-shirts found inside the bomb were tied to that rural area.
Additional details were not immediately available.
The FBI has said nothing about possible suspects, but public opinion from the beginning focused on some of the white supremacist groups that have brought notoriety to the region in the past three decades. The area once served as headquarters for Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations, whose members were lured by the small number of minorities.
The AP piece implies that the affiliation with white supremacist is purely conjecture based on geographic proximity to such groups.
A few minutes after that the same Seattle Times article was edited and lengthened. Here is the revised version of the excerpt from above (my emphasis):
An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested Wednesday outside a home near Colville, Stevens County. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.
The suspect is believed to be affiliated with white supremacists, the source said.
Look at all that editing of the first paragraph. And now there is only one suspect believed affiliated with white supremacists and the FBI source in Washington made the claim about affiliation. (Here is a before and after image.)
Fascinating…I’ve not come across an article in the MSM being live edited to such an extent. But now I won’t feel quite so bad when I make small corrections to my posts on Horsesass. And maybe I don’t need to footnote my changes, strike-through my errors, or even fess up after making correctinos. Hell…I can just compose live.
The Seattle Times has set the new standard.