For three nights, Rachel Maddow has thumped the tub for more coverage of the Spokane bomb incident (link below). On Wednesday night, she said this:
MADDOW (1/19/11): I still do not know why this is not a national story. This was not a theoretical bomb invented by law enforcement, that some would-be terrorists thought was real but never posed an actual threat. This was not an intended bomb poorly-constructed that would not have caused extensive damage. This was the real deal.
And so far, it has barely made a national ripple. Page A15 of the New York Times today, one wire service report.
To read that New York Times report, you can just click here.
Should Spokane be getting more coverage? So far, there really isn't a lot to cover -- unless you want to start thumping the tub about an incident which remains murky. But in fact, Maddow grossly misstated the basic facts about the coverage which had appeared to that point. According to Nexis, the story had already been reported in a large number of national newspapers by Wednesday morning -- not just in the New York Times. Beyond that, it had been reported by Wednesday night on the Today show and on NBC Nightly News; on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report; on the CBS Morning News, the CBS Early Show, and the CBS Evening News (two nights); on Good Morning America, and on an array of CNN programs.
The Associated Press had filed three different reports.
Do you understand why you get handed "facts" like that? We don't understand either.
-- Bob Somerby, "BAZELON AT YALE! What has Lieberman done wrong? Don’t ask Slate’s resident Yalie" Daily Howler.