Drudge baiting UK style

The Daily Mirror, one of many UK tabloids, has apparently mastered the art of netting a Drudge siren having baited the hook with a sensational claim that ZOMG, Boston bombers were part of sleeper cell of scary foreign terrorists. They breathlessly "inform" us:

More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.

A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

Which of course would explain why they botched their getaway so thoroughly. Maybe they didn't stay in terrorist school long enough to get to the part of the lesson where the other cell members drive the getaway car. Preferably out of town.

If you bother to read the post, which I don't recommend, you would find it's basically a rehash of the US coverage of the last five days. Not only does it verge on plagiarism, they didn't even copy it well. Many errors of fact. None of which stopped the outrage patrol of the far right wingers from adopting it as pure truth. What the hell. It totally validates their world view. They all linked to it, which of course was the point. Web traffic.

If you look at the front page of the Mirror online you'll find many interesting stories, if by interesting you mean, three posts about One Direction (it's a band the kids like), one of which exposes girlfriend boob envy among the band members. You'll also learn the Bieber is mean to his grandfather and see the tragic story of a four year old child addicted to the iPad.

And then there's the author of this huge scoop, Chris Bucktin, appointed assistant editor of the Mirror's US operations in January 2013. In the UK Mr. Bucktin was "head of content" which appears to mean person in charge of making shit up to fill the white space. He rose to that high position from his former perch as showbiz editor.

Certainly requires no stretch of credibility to imagine how he so easily cultivated inside sources at the FBI who would be passing on confidential information that could jeopardize the investigation in just three months.