The NY Post and other media outlets are being raked over the coals for releasing a photo of alleged suspects which turned out to be wrong, as I discussed.
It turns out the cops may have been playing the media deliberately to give the real suspects the impression that their identities were not yet known.
Via The Blaze, Fox’s Bill Hemmer Goes Off on Law Enforcement Officials Who Leaked Wrong Suspect Photos to Press, Including Him: ‘My Jaw Dropped’ (h/t Lee Stranahan):
One of the burning questions this author had in the wake of the New York Post releasing photos of two men it was told from law enforcement officials were wanted for questioning, only to have the debunked by the afternoon, focused on Fox’s Bill Hemmer. On Thursday’s “Fox and Friends,” anchor Gretchen Carlson held up the Post’s cover on-air and noted — albeit cautiously — that select members of the media had been shown the photos, and that Fox’s own Bill Hemmer was one of them.
That left one question: If Hemmer had been shown the pictures and they turned out to be not of the actual suspects, why didn’t Hemmer either stop Carlson or correct the record?
Now it appears we may know.
According to a strongly worded explanation on Friday morning with Carlson and the “Fox and Friends” crew, at least one law enforcement official was feeding the media misinformation.
Makes sense, in hindsight. The NY Post stood by its story even after there were public doubts. Maybe its source burned it, and others, most particularly the two guys in the photo who were not suspects, just two guys in the crowd.
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Gee, I hope this incident doesn’t cause the TV media to lose credibility. Oh wait, they don’t have any to lose…
“Makes sense, in hindsight.”
It does? Gee tell that to the person so identified who by happenstance is shot by a officer who having glanced at the paper id’d the guy on that basis. Theory I know, but if the situation is accurate then that is the worse type of police activity known.
Its using the citizenry as bait.
Yes, because the police usually shoot suspects before trying to identify him or get him to surrender.
remember the dorner stuff from few weeks back?
there are a couple of people who got shot for nothing.
That suspicious package was also not the right package. FOX kept saying they wanted to know about that package by the mail box. But as I and others mentioned then, it could not have been the bomb. The package was on the street side of the rail, but the rail was bent around the mail box toward the street.
So it seems they wanted the public, and the terrorists, to think they were looking at the wrong package. But they maybe did want more pictures of that scene.
by “rail” I mean the barricade. They blurred it so after you could just see the top rail bent around the box.
Snope 🙂
MY thought when i saw the pics that turned out to be the real ‘ Lone Wolves” was how much the earlier pics looked like the pics of the real bombers.
It COULD be that the ones who leaked the first pics only had descriptions to go on and so found 2 similar people
OR. IF it was a deliberate fake what was the motive?
did they ( FBI) already know exactly who the bombers were and were hoping this would bring the bombers out into the open where they could arrest them
versus having to try to get them out of an apt that probably had explosives?
if I am respectable medai I will be wary of future ‘ leaks”
Glenn Beck will have some news on Monday which may answer that question. It pertains to the 20 y.o. Saudi kid Khaled Al Harbi which the crowd tackled on the scene and Obama is deporting all of a sudden. Rumors are that Khaled Al Harbi is married to the daughter of Ayman Al Zawahiri, the current head of Al-Queda. It’s also being reported that Michelle Obama visited Al Harbi in the hospital. Caution: These may just be wild-eyed conspiracy theories at this point.
There’s almost nothing that is more repulsive than a gaggle of reporters asking stupid questions at a news conference and they were “played,” well it’s about time!
When it comes to accuracy, Fox is right along with the rest of ’em.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen the so called “press,” get it wrong more often than getting it right and I’m simply referring to the facts not the the embellishment factor.
Journalism indeed is the world’s dumbest profession…
And Catherine Herridge kept going on about how significant it was that they used that battery from a toy, instead of regular batteries. But I’d read long ago that these toys can be used not for the battery, but because they have a remote control capability, to push a trigger for example.
Even Greta thought that was odd, thinking a regular battery would be more generic. It seemed so odd I wondered if Herridge was in on it, trying to encourage the terrorists to feel the FBI is so stupid, that they had gotten away with it. Indeed they were seen at school AFTER the bombing, keeping up appearances apparently.
Maybe Catherine Herridge is an expert on batteries?
One of my fondest memories of the first Gulf War was General Schwartzkopf thanking the media for their part in spreading bogus information about the Coalition plans. This may turn out to be similar, but let’s wait for verification.
It’s fascinating that the DC snipers were found by a trucker when he was at an interstate rest area. No direct shutdown as such, yet people had felt threatened when out and about.
The 2nd Marathon bomber was found when a home owner went outside and noticed something wrong (Odd?) about his boat’s covering.
So, yes, the lock down did prevent crowds from being another target of these bombers yet the 2nd bomber was found once people felt it was Ok to be out and about.
So, should the Mass. authorities issued a lock-down order? Depends in so many ways, doesn’t it? The lock-down worked in one sense and not being locked down worked in a real sense! What to do next time, eh?
As someone who had a 1/2 Czech, 1/4 Jewish mother, and who takes some silly pride in the fact the Czech Republic is one of Israel’s greatest supporters, I am starting an educational project for our schools focusing on geographic terrorist literacy, tentatively called, “Geography Bee Important To Tell the Freedom Fighters from the Terrorists.”
A bit unwieldy as that name is, and also as a shout out to Michelle Obama’s efforts with kids, I’ll just call it,
“Let’s Roll !!”
The inspiration for my project:
Czech, Chechen, Slovak, Slovene, Iceberg, Goldberg
LukeHandCool, you are a one-man United Nations.
moonstone my friend,
If I were a one-man United Nations, I would completely redo the place.
America, Israel, and the Czech Republic would be the only permanent members of the Security Council.
And to fight all the negativity in the world there’d be a mandatory “Happy Hour” every day.
Our motto: “Drunken we fall, and united we try to stand.”
When the media has correct information frequently they still report it wrong. Perhaps by feeding them false information and depending on their normal error rate, they expected the media to report correct information.
Kind of like multiplying two negatives to get a positive.
Ya think???? I certainly HOPE they played the media. Why not? The media are not their friends. They were leaking every bit of information they could get their hands on. Only an idiot (and I really don’t think EVERYONE in the FBI is an idiot) wouldn’t use them.
[…] Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has up a terrific post today on “Cops may have played the media.” Another excellent post of the events this week […]
I may be able to help here. There may be two reasons driving the release of the wrong pictures.
1. The FBI didn’t know who the two were and wanted to ID them. It worked. I believe they tried cellphone records and other methods only to find that way useless(it isn’t 24).
2. And this is probably a very good reason- the FBI knew by Tuesday or Weds who the bombers were. They knew because they had a file on him. Now it became the “how do we cover our ass” method of police work. Not the line officers, but the bureaucrats at the FBI and JTTF. political correctness struck again and got people killed. They knew it.
From my blog:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2013/04/19/why-is-upper-level-quiet-at-doj-cya-time/
…Trust me, as my buddy pointed out before, the hesitation over releasing a GOOD photo of the suspects was not by accident. They knew. They also knew they had dealt with him before. It was a “Uh, boss, before you go out there and say something on video we can’t take back, can I offer up a suggestion? We might need to wait a little and get our act together about what we knew and what we didn’t do in case someday we are testifying in front of Congress. And I figure that’s a guarantee! ”
Some of the actions the feds took didn’t make sense to us who have some experience with those of us who handled investigations.
First, they had good photos but didn’t put them out right away. It could be because they were trying to find them through cellphones or intel. And maybe they didn’t want to turn it into what it turned into- a deadly rabbit chase. However, as we have now found out the two had more bombs and weren’t done planning attacks. So the question becomes do the feds let them bomb more while swimming around in circles, or put out their faces and hope for the best?
However, what if they already knew about the older brother. They had a file. They had a heads up from a foreign government. That’s not something to be dismissed lightly. It isn’t like an agent just decided to open a file on a hunch and found out it was bad lead. This was a case where a foreign agency- probably intelligence- contacted THEIR leaders who contacted OUR leaders…about the threat they felt was real from ONE person.
And they closed the file. After they did the subject became more and more radicalized and openly so. You would think even if the file was “closed” there would be some monitoring of a subject another country felt dangerous. …
I can only hope that the case takes a two tracks approach. One- to figure out the actual size of the cell and its links. Two- to figure out who screwed the pooch.
Only the New Media will force the second issue. MSM will cover up like they did with F&F.
“PC Kills” says many a bumper sticker. PC insanity killed in Boston, at Ft. Hood and is killing soldiers overseas as well.
PC is killing through abortion and HIV.
PC is multiplying victims of Sexually Transmitted diseases.
PC is killing elderly.
Liberalism and liberal policies is also a deadly, promote poverty, kill businesses and jobs, cause inflation, kill research, availability of medication and lower quality of health care.
Liberalism also creates ignorance, lower grades in school, unstable families, and many other evils.
PC is a Clear and Present Danger: http://www.cafepress.com/mf/38290833/pc-clear-n-present-danger_sticker
This might be true…but then again there was disinformation everywhere…not just in the media. Social media was full of crazy wrong stuff too.
Ed Davis is not that smart.
I think we’re all being played. The FBI had prior warning of 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 9/11, Fort Hood and they interviewed the Tsarnaev brothers prior to Boston. Didn’t they follow up on Benghazi too, with what results? At best inept, at worst infiltrated and neutered.
[…] might be deported. Well done. Seems there's more to the "wrong" pictures story: Cops may have played the media Posted by William A. Jacobson LegalInsurrection.com Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 11:00am The NY […]
The phrase Useful Idiots springs to mind unbidden. I have no doubt the cops would play the media to get the distraction they wanted. All they have to do is convince the right press contacts that this is unofficial and that if you name me as your source I will disavow (and you will NEVER get another tip from me again).