Friday, April 19, 2013

Manhunt marathon

When (this evening) I finally sat down to watch television (instead of just listening to it from my computer room), I augmented CNN with a Google+ feed of #Watertown on my iPad. When someone posted that the suspect was in a boat, I took it for a troll (a little contextual information would have helped) — until CNN reported it as well, some minutes later. News of the capture, likewise, preceded CNN's reporting of it by four or five minutes. Of course it is difficult to ascertain which posts offer credible information but as long as one maintains one's usual sense of skepticism, a several minutes advantage in an unfolding news event is manhunt manna.

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