Starting Five
Early morning with the beef and spuds, so this will be quick…
1. “Doc is here? Doc is not here?”
CNN –and the Associated Press– (basically, everyone except NBC’s Pete Williams) went all vintage Johnny Carson asking whether or not Doc Severinsen was leading the band that night in their reportage of the arrest/non-arrest of a suspect in the Boston bombing case yesterday. No arrests as of this moment. No one in custody. (Also, check out the avatar of my man @bomani_jones on Twitter. Well done)
“Pete Williams is saying what?”
2. I tweeted out a chain of photos from Reddit yesterday that showed a few people standing near the finish line with black backpacks. Men whose actions might have seemed suspicious. A GIF of a man racing from the blast. According to Reddit, these men are not suspects and are in fact innocent. Make of it what you will. I’ll be over here reading The Ox-Bow Incident.
3. The U.S. Senate votes 54-46 against a bill that would have made it mandatory to have background checks for firearm purchases made at gun shows and over the internet. President Obama calls it “a shameful day for Washington.”
4. An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas (not far from Waco) levels scores of homes within a five-block area and leaves at least 15 dead. Somehow Erin Brunette and Dr. Sanjay Gupta –both of whom must live in a hangar for a private jet — were on the scene within hours of the blast.
5. Thoughts and prayers to the Utah Jazz and their fans…
True story: I see Dubs’ CNN screengrab and think, “Wow, that’s a high-quality capture right there. Where does he get those?” And checking the image info, it’s from my own site, Tampabay.com. Small world we live in.
How about, as a nod to the varied faiths of a given audience today, we went with “thoughts or prayers,” so as to not offend anyone?
Wow. Don’t think Boston or its environs are a hotbed of henhouses but sure has been impressive to see thousands of law enforcement go all ‘Tommy Lee Jones’ – “hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, HENhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area… Your fugitive’s name is (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev). Go get him.”
And I know you think “social media”/twitter is the best thing since a cf playoff (that’s a joke there, son) but several of your links yesterday took one to multiple photos of at least 3 different guys purported to be “the suspects” & geeze, looks like mainstream media is NOT the only ones rushing to erroneous accusation. New term – Vigilante Media?