Posted 11:45 AM by Gene

Another post-mortem -- on news hacks:

[M]ost journalists failed to grasp that Harris and Klebold had devised a plan far more deadly than anything they could have accomplished with their arsenal of automatic weapons. They had built propane bombs—fifty-pound explosive devices concealed in duffel bugs, which they planted around the building, undetected, in the middle of a busy school day. If the bombs had detonated as planned, the school building would have collapsed, crushing hundreds and possibly thousands of individuals. The two teenagers were planning a mass murder far surpassing the number of fatalities at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Law-enforcement investigators often make errors in judgment and reach mistaken conclusions. Yet they understood immediately the implications of the propane bombs. Why, then, did countless experienced journalists fail readers, viewers, and listeners on that vital element of the story? Not even Cullen can truly explain this failure. Yet he’s quite clear on how the process worked: due to incomplete and otherwise careless reporting, most journalists formed their frame of reference for the story early, then screened out contradictory evidence. The lesson for working journalists is obvious, but often remains undigested. [Emphasis added]

I want someone to tell me again why I should feel sorry for this failing business, a business that has so often failed US as to deserve it. And given the way the damned GE BANCORP pasted its damned peacock over the last spectacle, one cannot help harboring the hunch the boys on the TV-news end wouldn't mind a reprise again and again -- especially as "NBC" Nightly "News" has been the ratings leader for most of the last two years.

P. S. The book is here. I note that it gets three one-stars, two from people connected to Columbine. Trying to explain that is like trying to explain our economy. I guess from these two paragraphs, we were "lucky".