US Feature: The Boston Marathon Bombs --- The Real Story of the "Saudi Suspect" (Davidson)

Why the search, the interrogation, the dogs, the bomb squad, and the injured man’s name tweeted out, attached to the word “suspect”?

What made them suspect him? He was running—so was everyone. The bystander handed the man to the police, who reportedly thought he smelled like explosives; his wounds might have suggested why. He said something about thinking there would be a second bomb — as there was, and often is, to target responders. If that was the reason he gave for running, it was a sensible one. He asked if anyone was dead — a question people were screaming. And he was from Saudi Arabia, which is around where the logic stops. Was it just the way he looked, or did he, in the chaos, maybe call for God with a name that someone found strange?

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Iran Snapshot: The World's Worst Pundit Today --- Mr Tucker Carlson

In my opinion, Tucker Carlson has proved that anyone who is loud, well-connected, and wearing a bowtie can appear on American television as a pundit, regardless of his/her idiocy.

Normally, this would not be worth a mention, but Carlson has exceeded himself in an interview with Fox News: "Iran deserves to be annihilated. I think they’re lunatics. I think they’re evil."

A sequel is posted below. Meanwhile, let's tip our hat again to Jon Stewart of The Daily Show who single-handedly decimated Carlson's short-lived career on CNN's Crossfire in 2004:

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Occupy Wall Street Video: A Marine to New York Police "This is Not a War Zone"

See also Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Why the Protests? Here are the Charts....
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Protests All Around the World

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Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas yells at police in New York City's Times Square, "If you want to fight, go to Iraq and Afghanistan", and in the last 75 seconds of the video, explains his actions:

And another veteran has a message for the claim of Fox News' Sean Hannity that demonstrators are "unpatriotic": "When they have these protests overseas, we call them democratic" (Warning: Strong Language at end of video):

Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond) Analysis: The Tea Party Is Outraged, Mocking...and Worried

Occupy Wall Street last night outside Cipriani's, where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a gala dinner (Photo: J.B. Nicholas/Splash News)

See also Occupy Wall Street Special: Canadian Caption Writer Goes Rogue and Takes Down Celebrities
Occupy Wall Street (and Beyond): Is It Now "We are the World"?

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Understandably, various Tea Party and conservative groups have looked on in alarm the last few days as the Occupy Wall Street protests threaten to displace them as the "authentic" voice of citizens' dissatisfaction with politics as usual in the US.

For more than two years, the Tea Party has been able, with some justification, to claim it is speaking for a "forgotten" America, but the emergence of groups throughout the country representing the “99%” of  Americans has called into question what the Tea Party were beginning to regard as their unchallenged mandate to change Washington.

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MediaFail Snapshot: How Fox News Replaced Pakistan with Iran In Its Threat Story

I knew I had heard this warning from Admiral Mike Mullen this week about attacks on US forces. So I did some research. Mullen said those very words, but the quote had absolutely nothing to do with Iran.

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US Video and Transcript: How Fox News Got Schooled on Meaning of "Occupy Wall Street"

Fox News, belatedly recognising that there is a protest in its third week at New York's Wall Street, has begun some coverage, albeit to try and belittle the movement with "pranks" and interviews presenting the demonstrators as ill-informed and/or extremist.

Didn't quite work out that way in this episode, however. Last Wednesday, a rather fumbling interviewer for Greta Van Susteren's programme was educated by protester Jesse LaGreca about Occupy Wall Street --- its approach, its objectives, and its attempt to deal with mainstream media such as Fox News.

The interview never appeared, on Van Susteren's show or any other Fox newscast.

Fox: Your colleague, she’d seen the protests in Greece and Europe and elsewhere. Did you guys take your cue from that? Are you hoping to cite certainly what was a lot of the tension, if not police activity. I know over the weekend there were over 100 arrests and you guys got things fired up. Are you taking your cues from the international movement and how do you want to see this? If you could have it in a perfect way, how would it be?

Jesse: Well I don’t know, its really difficult to answer questions leading to those conclusions.

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Media Feature: Al Jazeera English Makes It to the US...Well, New York City (Stelter)

Every cable news channel has its moment.

CNN had the gulf war. Fox News had the war on terror. And Al Jazeera English had the Arab Spring.

But six months after widespread protests erupted in the Middle East, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera has not gained distribution on any major cable or satellite systems in the United States. The channel’s supporters say they feel it has been blacklisted; the distributors say they have to contend with limited channel space.

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EA Cyber-Special: Hijacked Fox News Twitter Feed "The President is Dead"

At around 0630 GMT, as we were setting up the Iran and North Africa/Middle East LiveBlogs, we noticed a series of disturbing updates from the Twitter account of Fox News Politics:

Just regained full access to our Twitter and email. Happy 4th

@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead

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Top This, Fox: Reading the News in Libya...With an AK-47

I'm not saying that the news on Libyan State TV is far from "fair and balanced", but this fellow seems to out-do even Mr Glenn Beck for a unique perspective on events. In the middle of the news, he pulls out an AK-47 and declares, "In the name of Almighty God, I pledge to you, my Dear Leader, that I will sacrifice my last breath, my last bullet, my last drop of blood, last baby and child for you."

Afghanistan: Furour over Petraeus' Alleged Remark "They Burn Their Own Children"

To the shock of President Hamid Karzai's aides, Gen. David H. Petraeus suggested Sunday at the presidential palace that Afghans caught up in a coalition attack in northeastern Afghanistan might have burned their own children to exaggerate claims of civilian casualties, according to two participants at the meeting.

The exact language Petraeus used in the closed-door session is not known, and neither is the precise message he meant to convey. But his remarks about the deadly U.S. military operation in Konar province were deemed deeply offensive by some in the room. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.

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