The American Spectator

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MSNBC Bombs

By Reid Collins on 7.20.06 @ 3:17PM

It looked like Armageddon for sure. There on MSNBC was a declaration: "Breaking News!" which went on to say that Israel had dropped a "23-ton bomb" on a Hezbollah bunker in south Beirut. The breaking news item kept reappearing last night during the Scarborough show. Let's see, you wonder, 23 tons is 46-thousand pounds, beyond the capacity of the F-16s being used for the normal work. How did the Israelis deliver such a behemoth, and is there anything left of the Eastern Mediterranean?

It was of course one of those miscommunications which is allowed to perpetuate itself either because producers don't know the difference or aren't watching their product.

The Israeli command had said it had dropped 23-tons of ordnance on that south Beirut target, but not all in one bomb of course. The 23-ton bomb does not exist except in the imagination of a confused television news production assistant. And, perhaps, in the minds of some hapless viewers.

topics:
Television, Israel