The Terrorist Attack that Wasn’t
Did you hear about the terrorist attack that didn’t happen at the Port of Miami yesterday? FOX news in particular tried to make this big, but try as they might, it didn’t happen.
Just three guys in the cab of an eighteen wheeler who tried to make a delivery to the Port but didn’t have the correct papers. Seems there was a miscommunication between the Port people and the driver of the rig. As a result of this problem the wheels were set in motion and reports had to be given to a bucket load of government authorities. Because two of the three men were Iraqis made the story even juicer for the FOX talking heads.
Before the news conference was given, the FOX people were practically drooling with anticipation of something big. When the facts were given by the Miami spokeswoman the story fizzled like a wet firecracker. All the speculation by FOX was doused one fact at a time.
This was a great example of how our thinking has changed over the last four or five years. A simple mistake by a foreign, and legal resident of the United States, becomes a possible terrorist attack before the facts and reasonable common sense are applied.
Just three guys in the cab of an eighteen wheeler who tried to make a delivery to the Port but didn’t have the correct papers. Seems there was a miscommunication between the Port people and the driver of the rig. As a result of this problem the wheels were set in motion and reports had to be given to a bucket load of government authorities. Because two of the three men were Iraqis made the story even juicer for the FOX talking heads.
Before the news conference was given, the FOX people were practically drooling with anticipation of something big. When the facts were given by the Miami spokeswoman the story fizzled like a wet firecracker. All the speculation by FOX was doused one fact at a time.
This was a great example of how our thinking has changed over the last four or five years. A simple mistake by a foreign, and legal resident of the United States, becomes a possible terrorist attack before the facts and reasonable common sense are applied.
posted by pissed off patricia at 3:07 AM
35 Comments:
The Faux guys are scrambling. They have little to do.
"Facts" and "reasonable common sense" don't apply to Fox News, or the rest of the media for tha matter. The fact that these people's ethnicities had been released before all the facts were out led me to believe this was being built up to put the fear back in the masses. No, there's only one Middle Eastern country whose nationalities are kept secret when they're caught doing something suspicious....
typical...
Looks like they pulled a Krauthammer, eh.
You know, we all have our misapprehensions. The ability and - for the news corps especially - obligation to study those before going off half-cocked is - supposedly - what makes us human.
I'll bet Fox was heartbroken to find that we were not under attack. It's also interesting that the ports are the one area that Homeland Security refuses to police - might upset their heroin import business.
Well, after all, you are talking about Fox News...The Network that calls Obama Osama and pastes "100 hours to turn the U.S. into San Fansico" below Nany Pelosi
I just can't believe anyone still watches their crap. I would hope their raitings are plummeting and that they will be forced to change format or their name or go off the air entirely.
There's rumor that needs started: "Fox news to go off the air! Cites lack of viewers"
Well you can't fault Fox News too much. After all, Pat Robertson predicted a major attack on US soil, at some point during 2007. His prediction track record is spottless, and if I were a newsie you better believe that Pat would be my personal Delphic oracle.
G.
Old habits die hard; Faux News seems to be incapable of just doing straight reporting without running it through their rabble rousing filter. They seldom let bothersome facts get in the way of a good story.
Oh Patricia! I almost forgot--I finally got my act together and added you to my Deep Fried Tempura Blog Roll....this will in no way affect your bandwidth...sadly.
G.
The folks at Fox are no different from people who believe in flying saucers, Bigfoot, or Atlantis.
Or crop circles. I really love these people. A whole bunch of large but symmetrical patterns turned up in English fields in the late 80s or early 90s, and just about everyone thought they were made by aliens trying to send us some form of message. It turned out to be two British men with great imaginations and too much free time on their hands making the patterns under cover of night.
Then crop circles started turning up in Germany, and people thought they were created by aliens. Nope, just some German kids. Then more crop circles turned up in Hungary, and it was held that those were made by aliens. Wrong again -- it was Hungarian kids. But then the patterns turned up in...
Well, you get the idea...
I'm surrounded by fucking paranoid idiots, they are called the media.
The first appearance of crop circles dates back several hundred years.
And the fellas that created the Milk Hill Crop Glyph had more than "great imaginations"; they were pretty smart folks also.
I saw the story last night and this morning when I was checking the weather, I passed up FAUX. When I saw their faces, I went back and it looked as though someone pissed in their coffee!!! As I continued to go down the channels, I saw the report of a mis-communication. It was at that time that I understood why the FAUX crew had that look on their faces. Too Funny!!!!
We stopped watching TV a while ago. Didn't even plan it, just turned it off and never turned it back on. So, we haven't seen any news lately. Missed the latest FOX debacle. Darn, I always like to see them get it all wrong. Jerks.
This is an example of why terrorism works as a tactic (and it is a tactic, not something you can go to war on). It creates paranoia, fear and upsets the normal flow of daily life for its targets.
There was a quote from the British Police the week before NYE that said it would be "and absolute miracle" if there wasn't a terrorist attack in London on NYE.
Look what we do to ourselves, do to fear. Bush & company have been pushing fear for a long time now.
Children's fairy tails come to mind, like: Chicken Little and The Boy Who called Wolf.
I'm sure FOX would like nothing better than to have an attack LIVE on their network. If they knew about the attack beforehand; they wouldn't report it to the authorities, for fear that they would lose their exclusive.
You know I think FOX "News" would do just that, time. Scary, but methinks so.
While Fox may make a big deal of middle easterners who got the paperwork wrong, based upon my own experience with our TSA guys as I fly hither and yon both domestically and internationally on business and for vacations, our government would have been more interested if it had been 3 middle aged white guys, particularly if they had had their families in the sleeper with them and a bottle of prellin a briefcase.
That would be "Prell in a briefcase"
It's times like these that remind us that terroism, and anti-terrorism are one in the same: they are both the management of a population through fear.
Now I'm scared.
G.
the all-around paranoia has gotten so predictable that around here, we've been known to laugh when fox reports this stuff. how sad that we can regularly assume that these "news alerts" are basically fox grasping at straws.
Then today there is the "SMELL" in New York. The 24 hour news channels leap on any story and hammer it to death just to fill air time.
The end result is that the fearful among us are willing to give up their freedoms in exchange for letting daddy government keeping them safe. Idiots!
Did Dan Rather resign over a similar kind of mishap? Funny, cause the folks at Fox have never been as small on the lies it will peddle.
There has never been a finer collection of Chickenhawks, liars, Airhead bimbos, and egoistical bastards in the world than those that appear on Fox news. The old Soviet Union's Pravada never did its job half as well as those at Fox do now.
Fox News, blimey......what a group eh?
Reflections of "Chicken Little." ; (
Bush has so pissed off everybody in this world, that there is indeed, people standing in line to blow our asses up.
But I honestly think they're being held in check, because of the "Campus Comedy" every little flat tire causes. Paranoia sells. Extreme Paranoia sells extremely well.:)
Fox news is idiotic.
Most news coverage is idiotic.
The racial profiling?
Disgusting.
Cubans look kind of like terrorists.
... the facts and reasonable common sense ...
They left town about 6 years ago.
I feel ashamed when I hear that. Racism has more than double since 9/11. I hear everyday racist statement about middle eastern peope. A lot of middle eastern people go to my college, and inappropriate statments are made almost daily. You would think that people wouldn't think that way now. I sometimes feel that I am one of the few people who truley believe all people are equal. I can not stand when people put all people in one categorey. The actions of a few must be taken on by the entire race. Sad the way that people are.
The meedyah is waiting patiently for another terrorist attacks. Sick vulture bastards.
I don't like to watch tv news, especially fox. Early morning BBC is good! History will not look kindly on how we treat each other and our planet.
Fox thrives on fear and spreading fear for all of the group thinkers to hear.
What is it with the things one doesn't have? Take for instance this Fox that I would love to see for the purely entertainmen purposes. Nevertheless, I hope that you take a minimum precaution by checking possible bearded bombers under your beds before turning the lights off.
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