and only the strongest -(or the most entertaining ones) - will survive!

Is the most predictable thing of all. It has been what they have done for the past decade.

Glenn, your points about coverage would be relevant, if you were writing about NEWS ORGANIZATIONS. Unfortunately, most of what you are referring to are entertainment establishments chasing the ratings rather than the truth.

When I read the headlines of the tabloids spread next to the cashier in my local Publix, I don't expect thorough reporting. The same goes for CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc...

is the age-old issue of the unreliability of "eyewitness" accounts, especially for highly stressful events. With such a high number of casualties occurring in what appears to have been quite close quarters, it's not at all surprising that those who were there and survived would have come back with widely divergent stories of what they saw.

Of course, building on top of that problem is the tendency of the media to try to fit stories as quickly as possible into an already known narrative. The two competing narratives yesterday were "PTSD in the face of multiple deployments" vs. "boogah boogah now we have terrorists on military bases".

I will admit to following the events closely while trying to fit them into the PTSD story. While the reports of multiple shooters were still "operative", my theory wasn't one of conspiracy, but a prediction that PTSD would have been so prevalent among those preparing for a new deployment that the presence of gunfire in an unexpected venue would have caused the additional "shooters" to have become involved.

Once the purported web postings were disclosed last night, especially in the context of anonymous leaks to AP (Laura Jakes byline) I realized we were going to be in for a very long slog through Hasan's religious and political views. Ironically, it may turn out that NSA's massive database of web traffic will be the route to determining whether the Nidal Hasan who made the postings is also the shooter.

have written him before complimenting him on his "radical ways"- such as posting articles on Lil' Sarah's latest foibles and the latest science arguing evolution and religion. You wanna talk about Frothing! Allah's got as many antagonistic posters as you, Glenn! (you must be very proud :) I like him because he occasionally asks questions like a Patriot*, instead of a dumbed down corporate lackey, but his still have many may flaws in thinking. "CLOSE!" (h/t Ron White).

Gotta say first off, I hate it that a man of color with a minority religion decided to frag people because he will be the symbol dumbfuck America will continue to associate Islam with Terror®. I say you can expect more of this as people become aware their government never stopped lying to them, even though a new puppet has been elected. The machine doesn't want us Liberals and Libertarians to focus on the real meat of the issue- a total lack of representative government. If these fuckin' reichwingers could drop their social hangup agenda from the marquee, I think we could effect change through public outrage, but as we see, the media is all knowing and will tell us what to think. And the "liberal" press just offers a milder form of fascism. Keith Olbermann is a windbag and Rachel is a hawk. And this is what represents Liberal/Progressive ideas. Bullshit.

Thanks for the post, Glenn.

*I got your book the other day.

Thus far, at least in what I have seen/read/heard, is the fact that the Major is a true blue American boy, born in Virginia.

N/T

Mass-media news reporting is intended to be entertaining, not informative.

Is a better description of this. A continuous stream of unconfirmed data points connected to a high profile event - for the primary purpose of keeping people tuned in. Having viewers accurately informed is a secondary consideration, if that.

I agree with you that much of reason for this pattern is the nature of the 24-7 news cycle and the increasingly competitive environment.

But news, as we once knew it, it ain't; and the demands placed on editorial judgement are few and weak.

Just to throw my two cents in here. In such a chaotic situation as a mass shooting, especially on an army base, you will probably get every type of rumor and speculation. Like you say Glenn, sources are being used and information is just thrown out there with little or no judgment involved. I expect part of it is the panic; the editor will fire me if I don't report something wild but it turns out to be true. Another part is just the lack of access, to be expected.

News consumers have to be educated to expect that and "disbelieve" reportage until the dust settles. Let us note just how long it took to get a complete picture of the Columbine shootings and how many myths that generated.

Because the enemy was emboldened by Obama's dithering.

We need to escalate in Afghanistan. Whatever the generals want. NOW.

Off Glenn's subject, but assuming some basic facts have now been established, they draw the most extraordinary picture. An American psychiatrist (MD) of Arabic descent, parents born in Israel (!) praised by at least one former patient, in the NYT I believe, as being remarkably skilled dealing with traumatized U.S. Army returnees from Iraq and Afghanistan. Who is a serious Muslim. And who (this is not perfectly clear) opposed the U.S. presence there. And who, finally, was upset about shipping out to the front lines, so to speak.

The first thing I did was to do a Greenwaldian perspective flip, as follows: I'm an white, Western Christian psychiatrist born in the Middle East. Iraq has invaded, bombed and occupied the U.S. American citizens have been tortured, sent off to be tortured, the country trashed with radioactive shrapnel. I work for the Iraqi army, trying to help Iraqi soldiers recover from war. They saw "terrible things" there, and they tell me about them. My job is to help them forget and to certainly not blame themselves. Sometimes, other Iraqis insult me or harass me for my white Christian heritage. I try to do a good job. In Canada, Iraqi drones are blowing up other Christians at their weddings. I ask Jesus what to do (oops - our analogy slips a bit there, as Jesus didn't speak of exterminating Infidels, but anyway...) and now they're sending me to the U.S. to cool out the Iraqi boys there.

What would that feel like???

Might Captain America blow his cool and take out some Iraqi soldiers? It's worth noting he didn't go on a spree in the mall, he took out soldiers headed for the Middle East. And he knew, first-hand, what these individuals were capable of doing there.

I could be wrong on what his suggests. The details are changing all the time. Just a little perspective, that's all.

It's the Greenwald Flip.