Things That Piss Me Off Tuesday - the misinformation, lack of information and downright stupid edition

Misinformation
It seemed like there was as much false information being put forth by the media yesterday as there was true. The 24/7 nature of news coverage these days requires someone, anyone, to keep talking. To fill the silence. To give their impressions. To guess. Too often, that's all they are doing, and those guesses turn out to be wrong.

The trouble with information, is that whether it's real or not, once it's out there, it's hard to reign it in. There is a picture of a little girl floating around the internet, most people claiming that she was running in the race and was killed. It's just not true. An eight year old boy was killed, a spectator, since children under 18 are not allowed in the race. I've seen that picture more times than I care to say on my newsfeed.

The reality is that with situations like this one, it will be some time before real information is available, before suspects are identified, before profiles are generated by the investigators, before the true gravity of injuries are known. This is why the officials in charge have news conferences, and why those news conferences don't start three seconds after the event. It would be prudent for the media to go back to the days where they waited for confirmation of those details before just throwing them out there, without knowing what is true and what isn't.

The Lack of a World View in the Media
Three people died and many were hurt here yesterday, of that we are all aware. People seized immediately on how it looked like a war zone and that we aren't used to seeing things like this here in the United States.  The truth is, we aren't used to seeing them at all.

Also yesterday, at least 42 people were killed and hundreds injured in bombings in Iraq. Attacks like that happen far too often in other parts of the world, and get marginal coverage at best here, if they get any at all.

We want to believe that we have such a broad world view here, and yet, we see so little. You almost have to go looking for news about anything that happens outside the country, but we get constant updates on celebrities.

Because that is what's important.

Speaking of Celebrities...
Justin Bieber went to the museum in memory of Anne Frank.  When he signed the guest book, he wrote, Anne Frank was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.

I was just floored when I read that. The level of ego centrism is beyond my understanding. Immediately after it hit the press, people started coming to his defense, saying that he was young and impulsive and that we shouldn't poke fun at him because he made a mistake. Really??? He was in the home of one the most well known victims of the Holocaust, where I can't imagine being anything but humbled and reflective, and he wrote something that can only be described as self serving and ridiculous.

Get over yourself, Justin. I'm pretty sure Anne Frank had other people to inspire her.

Guilty Defendants Claiming They Aren't Guilty
Last week, Austin Sigg entered his plea in the murder case of Jessica Ridgeway.

After his mother called police and turned him in, after he confirmed on the phone that he kidnapped and killed her, after pieces of her body were recovered from his house, after he gave gruesome descriptions of what he'd done to her, after all that, he pled not guilty.

I can't imagine a world where this guy isn't going to be found guilty, but he seems determined to stretch this out as much as possible. His attorneys are reserving the right to claim he is not guilty by reason of insanity.

Good luck with that one.

The guy took forensics classes, crime investigation classes. He kidnapped her, killed her and mutilated her body, performing experiments on decomposition. While no one is going to argue he's a normal human being, he knew what he was doing, and we all know he's guilty.

As if her family hasn't been through enough, now they have to go through a trial too.

Fortunately for Sigg, he did all this before he was 18, so although he is being charged as an adult, the sentences are limited. How nice for him. Even if he receives the maximum sentence, he'll still be eligible for parole in 40 years.