The Media and the Manhunt

The Media and the Manhunt:

The Banality of Evil (and Good) 

Christine Deluna and Zach Crawford

On Wednesday April 17, CNN’s Peter King reported live on TV a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody. This would have been a huge victory for CNN and Boston…if it were true. King falsely reported this “breaking” story and started a media firestorm, which ended in every reporter in a 100-mile radius descending on a Boston courthouse only to find there was no suspect, and oh, now there’s a bomb threat at the courthouse.  Shamefully, CNN’s next BREAKING NEWS bulletin would feature its own journalist’s negligence.

CNN’s misreporting Wednesday became the catalyst to the media equivalent to a chicken running around without a head, wings, and legs. From the millisecond-by-millisecond coverage of the manhunt to the post arrest schmorgesborg of misleading and speculative coverage, the media’s response to the Boston Marathon bombings has revealed the flaws of many news outlets while highlighting the strengths in others. Unfortunately, these strengths were, and continue to be, outshined by hypotheticals and flashy attempts to contextualize and sensationalize a news story, even if some (or entire) details are completely irrelevant.

Oh, we know what you're thinking: but the terrorists are white.

To the Brink and Back: India and Pakistan’s Continual Escalations

Since 1998, the world has lived with two openly nuclear neighbors with a troubling relationship. India and Pakistan have never enjoyed completely amicable relations since independence and partition in 1947. The acquisition of nuclear weapons by both powers have had analysts predicting alternately Armageddon and a stable subcontinent ever since. India tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974 but refrained from launching another test for over 20 years, until 1998 when it tested its first fusion weapon. In response, Pakistan launched 6 missiles, officially joining the global nuclear club. Neither country is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and thus were not in contravention of international law in proliferating. Yet the international community’s initial response was one of dual-sided approbation and fear, especially given the two countries’ long-standing territorial dispute in Kashmir. Pakistan had been supporting the Kashmiri insurgency as well as other uprisings within India for decades, and now there was real danger of escalation of conflicts to the nuclear level in the minds of scholars and policymakers alike. Alarm bells were ringing in South Asian circles with many predicting that there would be a new and equally dangerous “Cold War” on the sub-continent.

The Thick Red Line - Syria's Intolerable Use of Chemical Weapons

Evidence has been amassing in recent days to support the notion that the Syrian government is using chemical weapons in the ongoing civil war ravaging the country. The use of chemical weapons has continuously been referred to as Obama's "red line;" therefore, the implications of this are quite serious. However, despite the White House having said since the beginning of the conflict that they would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons and would see it as grounds for more substantial intervention, nothing seems to be happening. Without a clear consensus coming from lawmakers and the White House, continued floundering by the U.S. on this issue will have significant repercussions for the Syrian opposition. In a moment vaguely reminiscent of Rwanda in 1994, President Obama's legacy may be galvanized by his wavering on what is one of the gravest issues he has faced as president thus far.

LGBTQ Rights Worldwide: A Love Story

The Global Atlas of late has been consumed by the tragedy in Boston that affected all of our contributors directly. Yet while many bad things were happening in the world, there have been distinctly positive developments on the world stage. In one realm of human rights where many feared there would never be progress, especially in more conservative religious societies, major gains were made just in the last week: France and New Zealand each legalized gay marriage nationwide, bringing the total number of countries with legalized same-sex marriage to fourteen. Fourteen out of nearly 200 countries isn’t great, but consider this: it is a 1,300 percent increase in just the last ten years. At the beginning of this century, not a single country had legalized equal marriage rights. Not a single US state had legal same-sex marriage. Not. One. Now nine have fully recognized equal marriage as well as the District of Columbia. So 2013, with 14 countries and 9 US states having legalized equal marriage rights, marks a sea-change from the world in which we were living not even 15 years ago.

Protests in favor of equal marriage rights in January in Paris. Courtesy of AFP/Thomas Samson

When Terrorism Hits Home: Three Reactions to the Boston Bombing Crisis

 The indomitable city

Vicky Kelberer:

I wrote the following on Thursday evening, before the terrorists were killed and captured:

Boston, for me, is an adopted home. When I moved here five years ago, my mother would be the first to tell you that I spent the first week crying and wanting to go “home” to Minnesota. Five years later, Boston is home. It’s where I grew up, and I mean really grew up, into some semblance of an adult. It’s where I met best friends, found my passion in life, found mentors who help me to achieve it, and most importantly, it’s now where I come “home” to when I travel around the world and across the country. The only year since moving here that I missed Marathon Monday, the ultimate Bostonian holiday (even bigger than St. Patrick’s Day, not kidding), I had a dinner of mourning with a friend from Boston since we both were in Switzerland far away from the festivities we love so well.