This should be a major news story -- deserving of signifcant coverage on cable TV and on leading mainstream media news sites:
SPOKANE, Wash. — A backpack found along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane contained a bomb "capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the FBI said Tuesday, describing the case as "domestic terrorism."
The FBI said the Swiss Army-brand backpack was found about 9:25 a.m. PST on Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.
In an interview on msnbc cable's "The Rachel Maddow Show," Spokesman-Review reporter Thomas Clouse said confidential sources told him that the device was equipped with a remote control detonator and contained shrapnel.
The fantasically good news here is that a major tragedy was averted -- in large part because of alert Spokane citizens who spotted the backpack, thought it suspicious, and called the police, just as authorities have asked the public to do ever since 9/11. The bad news, of course, is that someone out there wanted to cause a major tragedy -- on Martin Luther King Day, no less -- and that person, or persons, is still at large.
An explosion and the potential for multiple murders that a shrapnel bomb could have caused to those celebrating Dr. King's legacy would have been a staggering blow to a nation that is still reeling and feeling the aftershocks of the first assassination attempt against a member of Congress in nearly 33 years. Even though the bomb didn't explode, the episode raises deeply troubling new questions about the extent of violent politically fueled anger in America in 2011, and why it seems that liberal targets like Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and now King Day marchers like the children pictured at top are the ones in the crosshairs, to use the controversial word of the day.
In other words, it's what Joe Biden might call a BFD. But you wouldn't know that if, for example, you visited the two websites that -- in my own 30 years of experience as a journalist, for better or worse -- do more than any other to set the agenda on national coverage in newsrooms across the country.
One of those (note I said "for better or worse") is The Drudge Report, which ultimate Beltway insider Mark Halperin has said "rules our world." In the 16 or so hours since the FBI went public with the "domestic terrorism" angle, Matt Drudge has spotlighted articles about things like a man arrested for taking photos at Miami airport, a blogger who may lose his firearms permit for a post related to the Tucson massacre, and laser incidents against airplanes -- but nothing about the thwarted Spokane bombing.
OK, so that's Matt Drudge -- but the silence of the leading mainstream news website -- that of the New York Times -- is a little harder to explain. I've checked their home page at least a half-dozen times since last night, and I have yet to see a featured story on the FBI investigating "domestic terrorism" in Washington State. The lack of Times coverage may explain while for the most part, the coverage of this story on cable TV -- the people who routinely hyped run of the mill car chases and blown-tire airplane landings -- has been very minimal. I say for the most part because there have been a couple of exceptions. "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC featured the Spokane story as major breaking news at the top of its broadcast last night, and for a time it was the lead story on the Huffington Post. Major news outlets -- but with a liberal orientation.
Which is why I can't help but wonder if there's a backstory here related to the past weeks coverage of the assassination attempt on Rep. Giffords, and the right-wing critique of some of that coverage. As you surely recall, the fact that a Democratic congresswoman was targeted in a state that has beeb a bastion of the Tea Party Movement and unrest over issues like illegal immigration provoked a number of articles about political rhetoric on the right -- including the fact that Giffords had been mapped with crosshairs in the now famous political mailing by Sarah Palin's PAC.
When it emerged that alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner was an almost certainly mentally ill 22-year-old who seemed to follow some bizarre conspiracy theories but not the political rhetoric of Palin or the Tea Party, there was massive pushback from conservatives who accused the mainstream media of jumping to unfair conclusions. Most famously, Palin herself emerged to call this a "blood libel." The former GOP veep nominee was savaged for using that charged term, but you have to wonder now if the pushback from Palin is actually a case of "mission accomplished."
That's because with this new episode in Spokane, not only have the pillars of the mainstream media not raced to any conclusions, but they seem to be in a competition as to who can most ignore the story altogether. But there's no need to jump to unwarranted conclusions here; the actual facts have been laid out by the nation's preeminent law enforcement agency, the FBI -- that we are dealing with a case of "domestic terrorism," that the sophisticated device along the King Day parade route was capable of causing mass casualties, and the target was American citizens celebrating an icon of the progressive movement, Dr. King.
Maybe the implications are just a little too frightening for the mainstream media to want to deal with. But this episode seems to clarify what some of us have been reporting and writing about for the last two years, that there is an escalating tide of political violence in this country, and the majority of perpetrators or incidents involve the targets of eliminationist rhetoric from the right wing. This is a major issue for America -- on a par, in my opinion, with U.S.-China relations or the future of health care reform -- and the media is dropping the ball here, big-time. It's not too late to pick it up.
I haven't heard too much reporting around here about this little incident. I wonder why. "Tucson tea party leader Trent Humphries was threatened today during an interview with ABC...ABC News held a town hall event today in Tucson, Arizona. Local officials, friends and heroes were at the event...Trent Humphries, the Pima County tea party leader, stood up to speak during the event...One member in the audience and reportedly one of the victims of the tragedy started screaming, “Trent Humphries you’re dead!” The police immediately escorted him out. On his way out he screamed, “You’re all wh*res.”...leftist J. Eric Fuller was charged with with threats and intimidation and he also will be charged with disorderly conduct."— jmc
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I wonder if the backpack had "FEDS" scrawled across its chest? Not sure where you got that it was a "sophisticated device", or that it was capable of mass murder, but your yearning for this story to be bigger than the future of the American and global economies is bizarre. As is your claim that "the actual facts have been laid out". Actually, we don't know any of the facts. We don't know if it was a big bomb or a little bomb. We don't know if it was planted by a terrorist or as a prank by some dumb kid, or by someone wanting to find it and be a hero, or by a loopy lefty trying to make it look like right wing terrorism. But don't let the utter lack of any facts get in the way of your wet dream that it was white supremacists trying to blow up African Americans marching for Dr. King.— Mr. Smith- The left so dearly hopes that this "domestic terrorism" was perpetrated by a member of the Tea Party, because this is their "final solution". They've lost the debate, badly. They cannot compete in the arena of ideas and now their going for scorched-earth, and want to paint half of the country (who vote Republican) as potential terrorists and murderers. This is their plan, it's a real strategy developed by people with questionable character. Their finger is on the button. Why do you think they were so quick to pounce after the AZ shooting? They can't wait for this to go down. I guess they think it will help them win elections. What do you say about people who think like this? It's almost incomprehensible.— jmc
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But Fox News has breaking news of a suspicious package at an Israeli Bank, oh it was just a greeting card, never mind. I'm sure they'll find something else to further their agenda soon.— borncynic- Comment removed.
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- I have read Taranto and found little useful in the ramblings. Also, since I'm sure some of the targets weren't Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama's brothers and sisters in Christ, it doesn't matter anyway. I've also seen a lot of coverage on the Fuller story. I guess conservatives are too lazy to look around and just like to blast anything that makes sense. Fox News has apparently dumbed down their ability to actually follow the news, I think.— HandNik
Are the Civil War-era laws that provide for the confiscation of the property of rebels and traitors still on the books? They were used to free a small number of slaves (human property) before the Emancipation Proclamation solved the larger problem. Such laws, if they have not been repealed , could strike the right wing where it would have the greatest impact--the seizure right wingers' property.- Worry not...the vestiges of these laws, in the form of the Obama phone surcharge and property tax redistribution are alive and well today. Just another lib calling for mind control followed by wealth redistribution. — 2ndNlong
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- ===]]] Not sure where you got that it was a "sophisticated device", or that it was capable of mass murder, but your yearning for this story to be bigger than the future of the American and global economies is bizarre. As is your claim that "the actual facts have been laid out". Actually, we don't know any of the facts. We don't know if it was a big bomb or a little bomb. [[[===
Wow!
--snip--
APNewsBreak: Bomb At MLK Parade Sophisticated
by The Associated Press
text size A A A
SPOKANE, Wash. January 19, 2011, 11:56 am ET
A bomb left along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade was sophisticated, with a remote detonator and the ability to cause many casualties, an official familiar with the case said Wednesday.
The bomb, which was defused without incident on Monday, was the most potentially destructive he had ever seen, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information about the investigation.
"They haven't seen anything like this in this country," the official said. "This was the worst device, and most intentional device, I've ever seen."
--snip--
— Talking point sleuth - As much as I love our beloved ARTs, they can't hold a candle to Fox News website commenters:
--snip--
talesin63 [Moderator] 31 minutes ago
This entire story and premise stinks.
If it was terrorists - whatever variety - they would have tried to detonate it. And they didn't.
As some have opined, this is more likely a government agency drumming up support for the next round of removing your liberties and freedoms as we become a police-state.
--snip--
Yeah. More likely it was a "government agency."
— Talking point sleuth
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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