In the big rush to be the one to grab the ratings for the missing Malaysian airliner story, news channels are once again turning to the dubious strategy of helping educate terrorists by teaching all their viewers (on worldwide channels) how to accomplish extremely specialized tasks like turning off commercial airliner transponders and flight-tracking systems, apparently unaware that this information could help active and potential terrorists hijack airplanes in the future.
Well, I guess with the government spying on everyone else, there are only a limited number of people who can safely pass critical information to terrorists without anyone being punished for it, so I guess the news people have taken this task upon themselves, thinking someone ought to do it. (Or maybe they’re too dunderheaded to see that’s what they’re doing?)
This is sadly an illustrious tradition in the American news. Whenever a terrorist plot is prevented, the news tells us what the plan was, how the terrorists got caught, what they should have done to not get caught, and what future terrorists ought to do to succeed in the same plan. That makes them material supporters of terrorism, if critical information and tutoring is considered material support. If I did that, I’d be in jail, and so would you if you did it. But I guess the NSA is too busy spying on all of us to notice what’s happening right out in the open.
