By Patrick Murphy
Most will likely agree that 9/11 is a qualitatively different event from the Sandy Hook massacre and Boston bombing. Nevertheless, with such highly questionable events the first question that must be asked is, “Did something happen?” The second question is, “What happened?” These questions lead us to ask why such events happen, what parties are behind the events and what are their possible rationales.
Exactly how many people were injured as a result of the April 15 Boston Marathon Bombing (BMB)? An official tally from the Boston Public Health Commission puts the number at an incredible 282 injured and four killed, including MIT police officer Sean Collier. “Only two patients wounded in the Boston Marathon bombings remained in critical condition” on April 22, the Boston Globe reported, “but the count of injured people who were treated in area hospitals has risen sharply to 282, according to the Boston Public Health Commission. That is far higher than the initial estimate of 170.”
(Several additional photos of the finish line bombing aftermath have been added to the latter portion of the essay.-JT, 4/27/13)
“For the most part we do not first see, and then define,” Walter Lippmann observed in 1921, “we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture.”[1]
This article was first published at
Memoryholeblog and GlobalResearch on
August 10, 2012 following the Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin mass shootings. It is reposted here in light of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing.-JT
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The news media’s readiness to accept official pronouncements and failure to more vigorously analyze and question government authorities in the wake of “domestic terrorist” incidents including mass shootings and bombings contributes to the American public’s already acute case of collective historical amnesia, while further rationalizing the twenty-first century police state and continued demise of civil society.
Updated April 14, 2013
A Memoryholeblog reader who wishes to remain anonymous has submitted the following Internet Archive captures of previously-published profiles from the CrisisActors.org website. These have been juxtaposed by the contributor with stills from news interviews with individuals appearing in various footage of the Sandy Hook massacre aftermath.
The following is presented with the caveat that since a good deal of forthrightly misleading digital image comparisons have circulated regarding Sandy Hook, researchers should exercise care when presenting and analyzing photographic evidence. These image comparisons are by no means posted as conclusive proof of a connection between CrisisActors and Sandy Hook and are for research and discussion purposes only.
The Internet Archive presently retrieves pages from CrisisActors.org only for Dec. 23, 2012 and thereafter.
After the nine day media frenzy over my public observations that the Sandy Hook School massacre likely didn’t transpire as the news media reported, I was left to ponder whether anything productive came out of the “news” production where I reluctantly played the starring role. Unfortunately, after many news cycles the public remains as much in the dark on the specifics of the shooting as it was on December 14th. This should be expected as major media proceed with coverage that sensationalizes events and defames individuals while leaving readerships and audiences largely uninformed.
Another example of this phenomenon that has hit close to home involves Deandre Poole, a colleague in my department at FAU. Like me, Poole has been placed up on the media scaffold and vilified, his livelihood and personal welfare threatened mainly as the result of a news media that is far more concerned with provocation than enlightenment.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook School shooting public incredulity with the official version of events led to numerous speculations on what really happened. In short order corporate media marshaled pundits to disparage such alternative interpretations as “conspiracy theories” and the work of deranged and even malevolent Sandy Hook “truthers.”
The now-prevalent phenomenon where only the narratives authorized by law enforcement and government authorities are worthy of serious consideration suggests the unmistakable extent to which public discourse has declined. In such an ideational system journalists and academics are expected to either fall silent or perform the rearguard action of deflecting criticism from the state.
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