Friendly Fire on the Potomac

Friday morning, as millions of Americans fell prey to their Pavlovian responses to the mystical numbers of 9 and 11 (in that order), I heard the story of possible shots being fired on the Potomac near the White House.

Initial response: Bullshit!

Minutes later the news agencies are forced to admit that they had been listening to the scanners and had overheard what turned out to be routine training exercises by the Coast Guard.

Rather than admitting that they had jumped the gun, so to speak, on the anniversary of the day that is meant to induce emergency panic on multiple levels, they blame the Coast Guard's 'insensitivity' of running training exercises while everyone is so fucking skittish.

Did the Coast Guard or CNN cause the 9/11 panic on the Potomac?

“Before we report things like this, checking would be good,” Gibbs said. To which many media experts could only say, “Duh!”

CNN, you fucked up.

The Coast Guard, as a branch of the armed services (DON'T LAUGH), does two things. They respond to actual situations and train to respond to actual situations. Like most of the country, it was just another day at work. Do you actually expect the armed forces to tell the news media every time they are going to get in a little practice? They aren't going to do it.

CNN pranked themselves.