Today, what I consider two really big news stories broke.

[conuly]

One concerning an actor who apparently faked his own hate crime, and the other concerning a member of the Coast Guard who was apparently planning a massive terrorist attack, explicitly because he's a huge bigot against minorities.

I'm a little perplexed by the proportion of coverage these two stories are getting in my news sources. Not perplexed. More like disturbed.

Comments

[cactuswatcher]

I chalk it up to the usual. If it's Hollywood relatable more average people will watch than if it's some middle-aged nut job who got caught before he did anything, but buy guns and talk.

Then too, like the Atlanta child murders around 1980 and the Tawany Brawley hoax in the late 1980s, if the news can play something up as a horrible hate crime, then turn around and show it wasn't, so much the better for ratings. You spread fear on one side at first and then sooth the bigots who want to think hate crimes are mostly made up.

[conuly]

Mmm.