Five Things We Learned Last Night From Fort Hood News Coverage

• Michele Bachmann demands attention: Say what you want about Rep. Michele Bachmann (we said some yesterday during Office Hours), her Super Bowl of Freedom tea party rally in Washington, D.C. yesterday was by far the second biggest story on cable news last night.

This meant mentions throughout all Fox News prime time shows, but also on MSNBC (it was the one non-Fort Hood segment Maddow did). And Hannity was responsible for the tough task of transitioning from Fort Hood coverage to his interview with Bachmann herself. Of course, it was a glowing exchange. His guest later in the program, Geraldine Ferraro, thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious. “I had never even heard of until this thing started,” she said, laughing. “I tell you that’s a press office’s dream when you get that when you’re a member of congress.”

• Speculation is a slippery slope: As more news comes out, details are emerging that point to some aspects of early speculation, mostly surrounding Hasan’s name, may have been on to something truthful. However the idea that early speculation could have stoked anti-Muslim sentiment should not be lost in the situation either. Shepard Smith on Fox News (during his 5pmET-anchored hour) made a surprising comment that seems to indicate some level of jumping to conclusions, even as he hedges his remarks:

“We’ve been given a name as well and quite frankly I’m not comfortable going with it until its given to me by the United States military and they tell me this is who it is unless we get it separately, but the name tells us a lot, does it not Senator?”

We’ve watched it several times – we don’t think it’s being misconstrued what the implication was.

As another example, we were watching Larry King Live last night when Tom Kenniff, a former JAG officer, made this comment:

This is a major. He is a high ranking field grade officer. That means that he is outranks approximately 95% of the military. He is a medical doctor. He is an MD. That means he occupies a position of prestige, not only within the military, but also within society at large. He gets paid well for the job he does. You know, this looks a lot less like PTSD and a lot more like the Asan Akbar case in 2003 where another soldier who has an Islamic last name throws grenades randomly into tents occupied by his fellow officers and by his fellow soldiers for no other reason but to commit acts of terror and to instill fear on the military installation and to bring attention to himself.

Dr. Phil McGraw, also a guest, called the comments “irresponsible” and “ridiculous” – at the very least, they were premature.

Here are clips from Fox News, CNN and MSNBC:

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