SMEARING THE RIGHT

When something terrible happens, people tune in to CNN, Fox News or MSNBC because they want to find out more about what happened.  But the hosts of cable "news" shows, and the reporters and "experts" they interview have precious few hard facts to tell them, because in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist incident, the authorities either don’t know who is responsible, or aren’t saying as they seek the culprit or culprits, and gather evidence.

"We will know who did this soon," said Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted the kingpin in the first World Trade Center bombing.  "Investigators figure out who is responsible within a very short period of time, both because of the high priority such investigations are given and the tendency of terrorists to signal their responsibility for what they’ve done (after all, the point of terrorism is to leave us intimidated by the terrorists, so they obviously feel the need to brag)."

But if cable news show hosts told their suddenly swollen audiences the truth, it would be hard to hang on to their suddenly swollen audiences.  So they "report" rumor and gossip, and engage in wild speculation, based on little more than their abundant prejudices.

In large part because of this, about half of what is reported during the first 24 hours after a bombing, a mass shooting, or a natural disaster turns out to be false.  So what do we know for a fact about the bombing in Boston Monday?

* This was unquestionably a terrorist attack. But we don’t know yet who the terrorist(s) is/are, or why he/they chose to attack the Boston Marathon.

* There were just two bombs. News reports there were up to five more were false. They were in backpacks placed in garbage cans, and were filled with ball bearings and other shrapnel to do maximum harm. They were IEDs, like those planted by Islamist terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. But IEDs are relatively simple to make, so this fact tells us nothing about the identity of the bomber(s).

* There has yet to be a claim of responsibility or a follow on incident. The Department of Homeland Security has not raised the terror threat level.

* This was the 9th incident since 9/11/2001 which the U.S. government describes as an "act of terror." In all except the DC sniper case in 2002, there was just one perpetrator. In all save three the perps were Muslims.

The three exceptions were the shootings in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado last July; the shootings in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek Wisconsin last August, and the firebombing in 2008 of the home of a molecular biologist at the University of California-Santa Cruz.  James Holmes, the Aurora shooter, has since converted to Islam.

* Authorities have frustrated at least 50 more terror plots since 9/11, all by Muslims.

* Jihadists should include American sporting events on their target lists, an al Qaida propagandist wrote last year.

It is "very easy" to "inflict maximum human losses," because there are numerous targets such as "crowded sports arenas, annual social events, large international exhibitions, crowded market-places," wrote Abu Musab al-Suri.

We should wait for more substantive evidence about this incident before speculating about culprits and motives.  Remember how Richard Jewell was falsely maligned after the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics.  But the facts outlined above point in a particular direction.  Which makes the direction in which many in the MSM pointed their fingers surreal as well as wicked and irresponsible.

Right wing extremists could have planted the bomb, speculated CNN "terrorism expert" Peter Bergen, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, and a panel on ABC’s "Good Morning America" program.

On what facts was this speculation based?  Monday was "Patriot’s Day" in Boston, and the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by white supremacist Timothy McVeigh took place in April, noted the ABC panel.  Mr. Matthews wondered if the fact that income taxes are due April 15 might have something to do with it.  It appears not to have occurred to these worthies that if someone wanted to attack the Boston marathon, they’d have to do it on the day the Boston Marathon is run.

Immediately after the mass shootings in Tucson in 2011 and in Aurora last year, liberal journalists speculated on air the Tea Party was to blame.  Perhaps they pop off before the evidence is in because they suspect that once it is, they’ll no longer be able to blame conservatives.