Letters to the Editor
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@JackSparx: we don't know
JackSparx writes that it's entirely possible that post-9/11 targeting of environmental activists is what got Briana Waters arrested. You're right, Jack, we don't know whether that is the case or not.
But the article does not suggest, except in its insinuating headline and teaser, that this is what actually happened. What I'm objecting to is the journalistic practice of setting up a story to evoke an emotional conclusion from readers ("Here go those overreaching feds again, pursuing innocent activists and justifying it by pointing to 9/11!") that would not be evoked had the headline and teaser matched the facts. I don't like being played with that way, and I don't think it serves the defenders of civil rights to blame every obnoxious thing the government does on excess post-9/11 terrorist-baiting, particularly in cases where the evidence clearly does not support that conclusion.