An urgent manhunt action-and-death scenario is unfolding in the Boston suburb of Watertown right now. It’s real and dangerous and anything but entertainment for anyone involved…but of course it’s riveting TV news coverage as we speak with the younger of two Russian Chechyan suspects in Monday’s Boston bombing — 19 year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev — all but certain to be surrounded or apprehended or perhaps killed within the next few hours (or perhaps minutes). His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died early this morning (or very late last night) with an IED strapped to his chest after — get this — being run over by an SUV driven by his younger brother Dzhakhar. A 7-Eleven was robbed last night at 10:20 pm. IED bombs were hurled out the window of a stolen SUV.
This is real and crazy and intense. A bomb could go off. More bullets could be fired. Don’t pull back and talk about the movie version. Don’t mention that the urgent, high-throttle activity happening now is straight out of a frenzied extended Michael Mann/David Fincher/Chris Nolan/Oliver Stone steadicam action sequence. And by the way, Dzhokhar is almost pronounced like “Joker” except it’s “JOH-karr.”
And if you’re in the on-air media community and particularly if you’re a CNN or MSNBC or network news reporter or commentator of any kind, do NOT under any circumstance mention the “M” word when discussing the reported background of the two fugitive-suspects. It’s irresponsible at this stage. I’ve included two paragraphs from a N.Y. Times report about the activity of the last few hours, and have been listening to two news channels over the last hour and the “M” word has not been mentioned, and if I know the news media it will be mentioned onbly when their hand has been forced. Of course it’ll be mentioned. Let’s just keep it out of the conversation for the next few hours.
6:38 am update: MSNBC is reporting that there may be some sort of link — possible, unsubstantiated — between the suspects and the Islamic Jihad Union. An accomplice of the two Tsarnaev brothers reportedly left Boston on a train to Connecticut but that train has now been stopped in Norwalk, Connecticut (next door to my home town of Wilton) and is surrounded.
You know that air travel over the next week or two is going to be a bitch.
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