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Earplugs, Rubber Bullets
Yes, everyone, you’re making too big a deal out of it.
Mollie, I love you, but you’re overthinking this:
The thing about not knowing that earplugs are not rubber bullets is that it makes it really hard to take any other reporting about police tactics, much less guns, seriously. It’s one of those unfortunately boneheaded errors that destroys credibility. Heck, it makes me wonder if Reilly has never been to either a gun range or a concert, where such earplugs are commonly found.
Common sense says it’s impossible, or vanishingly improbable, that an adult American has never seen earplugs before. This guy may be so effete he’s never fired a squirt gun, but I’m sure he’s been on an airplane—he got there somehow, right?—and every airport convenience store sells earplugs.
The poor guy was just too tired. It happens to the best of us. I’m sure he’s mortified. It would be a kindness to cut him some slack.
Or perhaps she’s dangerously idealistic.
What this says to me is something about how reporters are trained. You can go from high school to college, to work at a big media outlet, without ever having had any other jobs. And yet, these people are expected to, among other things, explain the world to us. By and large, American journalists who cover American life are reporting on a foreign country.
Ah! I see you’ve given this more thought than I have. Good post.
But this is my point–that may be true, but this isn’t an example of it. You don’t need training, experience, or deep knowledge of America to recognize an earplug. You just need to not be having a very dumb moment. It says nothing about my qualification to report on, say, zoology that in a moment of fatigue I’m capable of mistaking a tuft of black cat fur on the floor for a hideous spider.
Claire, with all those cats, I seriously doubt that spiders or any other kind of Crunchy Bug dares to go near your home.
Yeah, yeah, cut this schmoo some slack. But do for him what the Land Owner did for the Servant who owed him money. The minute he jumps down some Conservative or Republican person’s throat for doing or saying something stupid or goofy and I’m jumping this guy so fast he don’t know who or what hit him, and it’s this goof I’m gonna start with.
It doesn’t? What if you’ve been sent to your room to report on hideous spiders?
The guy took the time to snap a picture with his phone and tweet about it. This wasn’t a dumb moment. It was a dumb series of actions during which he had ample opportunity to prevent himself from looking like an idiot.
I say cut him some slack. It’s not as if he mistook a mob of looters for a group of peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights in the face of a police riot.
Hmmmm. I guess you could think those are rubber bullets if you weren’t physically there to touch them. I need to know whether he picked up any of these bullets. If he did, and thought they they would be any kind of a deterrent, and could, indeed, be rubber bullets, then we need to mock him, and with gusto.
I honestly thought his post was a joke when I first saw it. No one is that ignorant? Right? Oh crap.
Wait, I change my vote. Ridicule no matter what. To illustrate:
“Found these at Wal-Mart. Are they metal Q-Tips? Can someone please confirm?”
I reckon no one who isn’t exhausted, hungry, nearsighted, hugely distracted, or still under the effect of the Ambien they took on the incoming flight could mistake those things for anything but earplugs. But someone who is any of the above could. Sometimes, when you’re really tired, things just start to look weird.
The real question is: why were there ear plugs strewn around on the ground? Is no one going to point out he also fat-fingered “Ferguson”? He needs to leave Twitter to the professionals.
There is no reason whatsoever to cut this guy any slack. He’s a notorious shill for the Holder DOJ. He was called out for “gutsy” reporting by the DOJ for getting himself arrested at McDonalds. Fatigue isn’t the problem, it’s the fall guy.
Know who else has been having a difficult, tiring, and scary week? The police. Nobody seems inclined to cut them any slack out of “kindness”.
Reilly isn’t reporting a garden party for Page Six. This is an important story where accurate, informed reporting is critical.
Mollie is correct – this is an issue of his credibility, and if he can give a reliable account of what is happening. This is especially true since the equipment used by police has become a major topic of discussion. A topic on which he’s just outed himself as being abysmally uninformed.
Look, I don’t expect Ryan Reilly to be able hold up his end of a conversation about CS dispersal patterns or Triple Chasers. But we should all expect him to have done basic research. If he can’t tell the difference between a common household item and a munition, can he tell the difference between an assault rifle and a Pepperball launcher? Between firecrackers and gunshots? Between a SWAT team and a Mobile Field Force? Does he know the rules of engagement the MFF is under? Does he even know to ask?
Another thing that bothers me about this: I am a generation older than Ryan Reilly. I didn’t carry a cell phone until I was 28 years old. But even I know that if you don’t know if something is a rubber bullet, a twelve-second Google image search will give you a clue.
Why, instead, did he feel the need to tweet the picture out? To look cool?
Look at me, everyone! I’m in a dangerous riot zone! There’s rubber bullets just lying around in the street! I could be shot at any moment by an out-of-control cop, but I’m still here, bringing you The Truth™! I’m even going to ask “Can anyone confirm” just like a real reporter!
The problem with Twitter is that it turns people into twits.
If this were an object that could remotely be confused by a normal but ill-informed person for police equipment, I’d agree. It’s the total silliness of this–you just can’t persuade me that an adult American has never seen an earplug!–that has me convinced this was a cat-fur/spider moment. Sure, we should expect him to do basic research. But no amount of research will help you if you’re in a state where earplugs are looking like bullets: You’ve just got to get some rest.
I’m sure Ryan Reilly has seen an earplug, but earplugs come in many shapes, I could believe maybe he hasn’t seen that particular type before, to where its shape would immediately register.
This was not a cat fur/spider moment. There is a difference between momentarily mistaking something for something else in a startle response, and looking at it, taking a zoomed-in picture of it with your cell phone, uploading it to Twitter and composing a message to blast out to your followers.
P.S. “Cat Fur Spider” is now officially the name of my Velvet Underground cover band.
And say some worn-out cop on his eighth 12-hour shift on the riot line, who’s had rocks, bottles, and the occasional bullet thrown his way instinctively thinks, in smoke and low light, that the cell phone camera a protester has pulled out and is pointing his way is actually a gun. That’s in fact far closer to the cat fur/spider scenario.
You’ll be just as understanding, right?
P.S. I would like to note that “Cat Fur Spider Scenario” sounds like an unlistenable prog-rock album.
Guess that Nerf guns now shoot dangerous rubber projectiles as well.
One can tell the difference between shedded dog hair and the odd scorpion around here.
Would you post a picture of the “cat fur” so we can confirm?
I think a good part of the problem is the continuum of misinformation that comes from reporters who have little or no knowledge or understanding of the things that they are reporting. I was in a mountain rescue unit for many years. We used to laugh at the news stories that would come out following a rescue or body recovery.
Our information officer or the county Sheriff would clearly describe the events that had occurred. However, the description that came out in the morning paper was unrecognizable as being the rescue I was involved in. Part of the problem is that they are no held responsible for the dissemination of false information, and they should be. Then they would be more careful about what they reported as fact.
And if you’re going to take on the responsibility of reporting on a major news story, you need to get your head together before you sound off.
“Sometimes it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to speak and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln
Old Abe was a pretty smart dude.
I found it hilarious. It really made my afternoon.As a working journalist, its more “whistling past the graveyard” mirth than actual HA HA glee.
I wouldn’t have done THIS dumb thing, but yeah, I’ve done dumb things (no, I won’t tell, although each one is seared into my memory), and will undoubtedly do something dumb in the future.
I’m not aware of you taking a photograph of the aforementioned hair and tweeting it to the world as evidence that your house is infested by arachnids. And even if you did, it wouldn’t have the same negative impact on the country, because your spider infestations are a personal problem.
Kind of like when Hillary said she was “tired” and sleepless when she made her statement that she landed in Sarajevo to the welcoming of sniper fire, had to be rushed by the military to protect her, and barely survived with her life in a war zone.
Right? No I guess none of that happened either.
No I think the more likely explanation is that this is the result of the pathological lying of certain reporters.
Many jobs require one to perform, proficiently, when (pick one, or more) cold/tired/hungry/scared/dehydrated/sick. Part of the job description is the expectation that one will be able to do so.
I had thought journalism was one of those jobs–i.e., the jobs we call “professions.”
Guess not.
Were I at home, and hairy scary cat fur spider made an appearance, it would be acceptable for me to scream, jump up on the nearest chair, and direct one of my daughters to “kill it, kill it, for the love of God kill it.”
At work, not so much.
Y’all, run, don’t walk, and buy A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper. Very little will infuriate you while splitting your sides with laughter like it will.
Nope.
The only reaction this requires is gleeful ridicule. He earned it.
Think before you tweet, people. THINK! Maybe pause a moment and ask yourself, “Could asking this ignorant question expose my utter stupidity?” If yes, put phone back in pocket and move along.