In bringing this charge against Ramsey, Eid made clear to the press, "A death threat is not a legitimate form of political expression." Right. Unless you're meth-addled racists with real rifles, scopes, rounds of ammunition, disguises, fake I.D.s and bullet-proof vests and a stated plan to murder the first African-American presidential candidate giving his acceptance speech on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Then, you're just goofy "meth heads" who can't be taken seriously. Your plans somehow more "aspirational than operational," as Eid also put it.
(Incidentally, if you think Eid sounds curiously like a typical George W. Bush appointee -- somewhat unprofessional, seemingly incompetent, stonewalling, less than brilliant -- he is. Not only that, he was appointed at the height of Monica Goodling's infamously and illegally partisan vetting process. What's more, right before Eid's appointment to U.S. Attorney, he and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff worked together at the same top Washington lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig, where Eid, allegedly, was a less visible player in Abramoff's dealings to defraud American Indian tribes.)
Speaking with a reporter the other night who has a great deal of experience on the national security beat, I was informed of two things. First, what many might think: in such situations, the media often defers to the Secret Service in not making a 24/7 circus out of the events, which, they fear, might either encourage copycats seeking their fifteen minutes of fame or accidentally divulge information that diminishes their ability to protect a candidate. This same expert on national security reporting, however, made clear that it remains the journalist's duty in this situation to not merely parrot the authorities but to confirm if "no credible threat" is a reasonable conclusion to draw and to provide that information to the public in a responsible, sober manner.
But on television Tuesday, MSNBC barely edged out CNN for burying news of these arrests. MSNBC didn't bat an eye away from Hillary Clinton's impending speech; CNN followed suit but allowed for the swiftest of mention of the arrests at its top-of-the-hour news brief. This mimicked MSNBC and CNN's online presence of the story. At 7 p.m. (EST) Tuesday, CNN's homepage listed 14 top stories that trumped news of the arrests, including "Did Bill Clinton take a dig at Obama," "Edwards wife blasted for keeping affair secret," "Lying pastor had porn fetish, not cancer" and "Elephant warms to baby she stomped." And the headline CNN used for this link, it's 15th top story? "No evidence of 'true threat' to..." So if you weren't already aware of the story, you'd have no idea what this was referring to unless you happened to click on this already buried link. At the same time, the story didn't make the cut at all on MSNBC's homepage.
Additionally, all three major broadcast nightly news programs -- ABC World News, NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News -- and PBS NewsHour -- failed to mention the story. There did seem to be something ironic about each newscast's obsessive and incessant Iago-like riffs on the Clinton-Obama rift (however real or conflated) while simultaneously ignoring news about a potential assassination plot against the presidential candidate whose near future was being endlessly hypothesized.
This scant coverage continued Wednesday, with The New York Times, our paper of record, burying the story at the bottom of page A18; the Washington Post printed its corresponding report on page A23. By Thursday, the story officially disappeared into the ether.
I was also assured by the same veteran national security reporter that despite the U.S. Attorney downplaying this incident, "I guarantee you the Secret Service is taking this seriously and is so far up the ass of these guys [the three men arrested] you cannot even imagine." This reporter also noted that the Secret Service operates independently as well in tandem with other federal authorities and may not agree with the U.S. Attorney's assessment.
Seeking to confirm whether the Secret Service agreed that "no credible threat" existed, I contacted them directly. Ed Donovan, assistant special agent in charge of government and public affairs at the Secret Service, told me only, "I have no further comment other than what was said at the press conference yesterday."
Not necessarily a refutation nor an affirmation of U.S. Attorney Troy Eid's assessment.
Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech last night. Fortunately, it went off without a hitch. But ask yourself this: Is Senator Obama safer in the coming weeks because the U.S. media did its best to ignore, downplay or disappear information about the arrests and suspected plot on his life? With the Bush administration's track record of politicizing the Justice Department as well as appointing cronies and incompetents, isn't it more incumbent on our journalists to ask the right questions and responsibly report information that encourages U.S. law enforcement officials to perform their jobs with ever greater vigilance?
With the first African-American presidential nominee now vying head-to-head for the White House, these questions need to be addressed immediately.
Reposted with permission.
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