9 out of 10 Media Jerkoffs Agree, Jumping to Conclusions is Fun and Great Exercise!

After the Tucson shootings I wrote about the media’s propensity in the immediate wake of a shooting or act of terrorism to point speculative blame at specific groups as a means of politicizing that which is often simply the act of madmen.

The effort to immediately politicize these horrific acts is absolutely nauseating in and of itself. However, to politicize them as a means of using it to forward a particular political agenda borders on the misanthropic if not sociopathic. How many times do we need to have a catastrophic event co-opted to the gain of another before we collectively cry “ENOUGH”?

These absurd knee-jerk speculations offer a spectacular glimpse into their thought processes, biases and true beliefs as time and again when some wack-job goes off the deep end, members of various traditional and “New-Media” outlets have sought, openly and without apology to hang the act on those of a group they describe as “Right-Wing Extremists” or of having “Tea-Party"Affiliations. You can go to that post to read the list of recent instances of this occurring…..it’s long…very long...

You back? Starting to see the pattern?

Despite the fact that we’ve since learned that Nidal Malik Hasan resides at a crossroads of physiological disorder, Al-Queda fan-boyism, and just plain evil I distinctly recall the media’s ironic cry for restraint in assigning blame against Muslims in the aftermath of the shootings at Fort Hood, TX. That, was good advice at the time it of course still is. It should be a matter of course in all such tragedies but sadly isn’t. There is nothing to be gained in speculating on motives or associations until ACTUAL FACTS are known about a given assailant.  In most of these cases, the shooter turns out to be so completely out of his/her gourd that no particular rational motivation can be determined.  In the rare case where cogent motivation is found, rushing to that conclusion before actual facts are known doesn’t make it any more or less true.  There is almost no upside in rushing to speculate in absence of any evidence or with uncertain anecdotal evidence except for potential bragging rights in case one manages to luck into the truth — or in scoring cheap attacks on political opponents through smearing them with blame.

Which brings us to this week…..Yesterday in Boston some sick son-of-a-bitch left two explosive devices near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Cue the media filth mongers and their speculation.

• Before the victims blood had begun to dry on Boston’s sidewalks CNN’s Wolf Blitzer without a shred of evidence concluded that this might be the work of “Right-Wing” extremists on the premise of it being Tax-Day coupled with Patriots Day in Boston.
• Info-Wars owner and all-round nutjob Alex Jones opined that the event was a “false-flag” operation, insinuating that the Government was somehow behind it.
• MSNBC uber-douchebag Chris Matthews speculated that the perpetrator was “home-grown” stating that perpetrators of such things are "usually of the far right persuasion" (historically incorrect BTW) and likely reacting to yesterday being Tax Day. He doubled-down on the stupid opining that the fire at the JFK Library was the result of anti-Kennedy, anti-Democratic Party sentiment.
• Luke Russert opined on a connection to the anniversary to the Waco Massacre suggesting a possible link to “Right-Wing” remembrance on “Patriots Day”…that one is just too asinine for words.
• Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney took the Alex Jones “false-flag” tack (bizarre bedfellows) linking to a conspiracy theorist website noting that the Boston Police had held a bomb squad drill earlier in the day.
• BBC North American Editor Mark Mardell opined a connection to “home grown extremists”.
• Conservative Columnist Erik Rush went straight to anti-Muslim anti-Saudi rhetoric in a litany of twitter posts.
• CBS, Fox & NBC all ran with a bullshit tweet from someone at the New York Post stating that the Boston PD was holding a Saudi National at a local hospital….We’re now quoting tabloids as sources?

Regardless of your particular political stripe, if there is one thing we can likely all agree on its that our media is at its very worst during events such as these. The ability on the part of commentators, politicians or pundits to resist political rhetoric in the face of tragedy informs volumes on the intelligence and discernment of the person as at the end of the day, in the absence of an organization claiming responsibility for an attack or shooting anyone opining on the motives or political ideologies of the assailants stands a 99% chance of being wrong……and looking like an asshole in the process.