“The day this happened, I was on the phone to Fox News. They didn’t have their people here yet. Our police reporter was on the scene of the shooting. He told us that the shooter had an Arabic-sounding last name. I had that info about an hour before it was picked up by MSNBC, Fox or anybody else and I didn’t use it. I had three different interviews with television news, I didn’t mention it. Why fan the flames? We had one source, and it doesn’t really add to the conversation. When you first come out with something and don’t have all the facts, to just throw it out there, that’s just incendiary, and no one needs that. That’s where we are with the terrorist thing.” (more...)

It looks like yesterday's Glenn Beck show, during which Beck forcefully labeled Nadil Hasan a "Muslim, extremist, terrorist. End of story" may just have been an early sign of what's to come. This week's Time takes a similar, if not quite as strident tone, managing to slip a question mark in at end of the 'terrorist' label. As everyone in the blogosphere knows too well, shocking headlines and images sell. That said, at this point, all signs do appear to be pointing towards the conclusion that this was some sort of terrorist act. From the cover story: (more...)