Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Paranoia In The Skies?
Over the last two weeks, an article from Women's Wallstreet has made it's way through the blogosphere like Ann Coulter through a carton of cigarettes.
The article accounts Annie Jacobsen's terrifying experience on a plane that was supposedly going to be blown up by "14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old."
The article is particularly harrowing, considering the fact that most of us have had concerns about flying since 9/11 (if not before). However, new information has come to light that there was no terrorist threat aboard the plane. Only a group of Syrian musicians.
Here are some details from the air marshals who were on board the flight with Mrs. Jacobsen and the group of Syrians. This information was taken from Snopes.com, a site that debunks urban legends of every manner:
Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, "overreacted," to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.
The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.
"The lady was overreacting," said the source. "A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane." The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians traveling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.
This article has no doubt induced fear and paranoia into at least some of the people that read it. The problem now, is letting people know that the situation did not play out exactly as Mrs. Jacobsen described it. As usual, the initial story gets the publicity, the correction does not. (Think WMD's being "found" in Iraq)
Do I blame Mrs. Jacobsen for her reaction to the events on the flight? No, not really. She probably wanted only to inform people of a situation that we've all considered.
I do blame the right-wing media machine (particularly Michelle Malkin) that made sure this article found it's way around the internet at a staggering pace and tried to capitalize once again on the fear it induced. In reading the right wing reactions to Mrs. Jacobsen's story, you can almost hear them yelling, "SEE, SEE!?!" Exploiting middle America's perceived fear of anyone or anything Middle Eastern is allowing a lot of talking heads to score points.
The conservative (but not solely conservative) ideal that racial profiling is the way to solve many of America's ills is so patently un-American, it's upsetting that so many rational people would support it in any way.
Then again, when confronted with a terrifying ordeal such as this, one's judgment can become clouded.
Maybe that's what the right wing is counting on...
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