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.
The Spokesman-Review has a few details on the story.
They suck at geography too:
The man was arrested in Colville, which is north of Spokane.
The national news media had pretty much written their article in advance, just waiting to plug in the name. The early notice on the MSNBC website had a full summary relating the events behind the discovery of the bomb, and then a short history of eastern Washington and Idaho being home to the Aryan Brotherhood and other white-supremecist groups.
Of course, the various white-supremecists groups oare the obvious suspects in a case such as this, but I’m a bit dissapointed that the media is jumping into making the link before seeing evidence of an actual link between the bomb, the suspect, and the groups.
In the meantime, in Washington D.C., Rep. Peter King (R-NY) of the House Un-American Activities Committee (now operating as the Homeland Security Committee) is holding hearings to try to convince everyone that radical muslims in the U.S. are the main threat to national security.
By the way, I’m curious how the tee-shirts could be traced to an origin in a specific area. Did they have a high-school name printed on them?
Right wingers for sure…
Now watch what happens..
“Muslim terrorists must have infiltrated the KKK”
Peter King.
The only difference between Seattle Times and any other political blog is ST owns a $150 million white-elephant printing plant.
So, he’s now been officially tied to a white supremacist group, but I’m sure it’s one of those, you know, left wing white supremacist groups.
As if a bomb planted at an MLK rally in Spokane would NOT be a white supremacist…given the history….but I withheld judgement until they caught the guy…and he turns out to be a….white supremacist and former member of the National Alliance.
Time to start hearing on conservative, right wing hate-filled white people who hate our country…I am calling Peter King now….
Where is Puddy? He should be out in front making excuses for this guy, who most of his fellow conservative right wingnuts support.
Editing and redacting know no greater allies than the AP and the NYT. Neither of whom would address the anti-Semitic remarks made by Schiller in the NPR sting. If the NPR folks could casually smear people as racist and toss around anti-Semitic remarks to people they just met, you can imagine how they talk in their own offices. That’s leftists for ya!
Yeah…right-wingers just try to slaughter people at public events. Same difference.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have been very surprised if the perp who planted the bomb did NOT have white-supremecist views. I just thought the media was a bit premature in printing that conclusion, before any link had been made.
And, of course, the suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Rujax @11 spews: “Yeah…right-wingers just try to slaughter people at public events. Same difference.”
You mean like the death threats and other Deomocrat & union-supported thuggery in WI? Or, like the leftwing progtard who tried to kill Rep Giffords?
Yeah…nothing like killing a Physician in his own home to make a case for “moral equivalency”.
You are and your “fellow travelers” are the morally bankruptside of this equation with your Savage’s and Beck’s and Limbaugh’s.
Keep it up, pally. You just look dimmer and dimmer.