Stop the PR fest for terrorists

I am tired of the incessant, 24-hour, minute-to-minute, second-by-second news cycle.

When it comes to the weather it is ridiculous, but harmless. For example, the hype around a forecast of six or eight inches of snowfall borders on the insane. It generates people talking about it dramatically (“did you hear? they are expecting snow tomorrow!”). I think to myself, um, yeah, it’s January; considering it is winter, it might just snow. Snowfalls are written up with so much warning that it makes you think of the much stronger blizzards you lived through, pre-Internet age, when you did just fine with the weather. You dealt with it as it came, even reveled in it.

Remember Thanksgiving Blizzard of ‘83? About 22 inches of snow? Now that was a snowfall worthy of the name blizzard. A couple of weeks ago, when Denver schools closed due to a “blizzard,” honestly I felt humiliated as a Coloradan. Three inches? How wimpy have nouveau Coloradans become?

And these recent April snowfalls. Springtime in the Rockies. It is a treasure. Within one day you go from a pair of flip flops to shoes and then boots and vice versa. And sometimes even within a couple of hours!

But I digress. The relentless news cycle culture has become the norm in America. Since the Boston bombings, the media have been foaming at the mouth with non-stop coverage. The bombers, or the Islamist terrorist recruiters behind them, could not be happier. No different from viewing a Law & Order episode, the media have been milking this bombing to a sensationalist degree that is preposterous and perhaps even unsafe.

Immediately after the bomb the media was mentioning a suspect, a Saudi national. Then it turned out the guy was innocent. A week later, now it seems his innocence is in question again.

The rest of this article is available in the IJN’s print edition only. Contact Carol to order your copy at (303) 861-2234 or email carol@ijn.com.