According to this story,
Convicted DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo tells actor William Shatner on a cable TV special that he and his partner tried to recruit fellow shooters for their 2002 spree and that his accomplice killed one man for backing out, according to the program set for airing Thursday [on A&E].
That little tidbit raises a number of interesting points:
- It reminds us that the whole DC Sniper case was severely hampered by political correctness from the git-go, from wasting time looking for the imaginary white guy the FBI profiler said had to be a shooter, to downplaying the Jihad angle of Malvo and executed co-conspirator John Allen Muhammad.
- That we’re just now getting these revelations suggests that the media is very poor at follow-up, especially considering that the DC Sniper case dominated news cycles for well over a month, and was one of the biggest stories between 9/11 and the liberation of Iraq.
- And who’s breaking this story? Anderson Cooper? No. Steve Kroft? No. Not even (God help us) Geraldo Rivera. No, this story is evidently being broken by William Shatner on A&E.
- This would be the perfect point for one of those rants about the blurring of the lines between journalism and entertainment, but you know what? That ship sailed a long time ago. At least as long ago as Network (which, by the way, is still brilliant), and arguably even earlier. But why Shatner, and why A&E? Who knows, maybe Malvo said “I got a secret, but I won’t tell it to anyone but Captain Kirk! And you damn well make that original recipe Captain Kirk! None of this Kirk 2.0 crap!”
- Actually, Shatner’s about the only one not to be blamed for the situation, as he’s made it apparent that there’s nothing he’s afraid of tackling, and I’m actually something of a Shatner devotee.
- But having Shatner break the story reminds me of that Jon Stewart tagline:
I guess we’ll have to get used to saying “William Shatner, Investigative Journalist” in the same way we’ve gotten use to saying “Emmy-Award-winning actor William Shatner.”
(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, although I think Instapundit buried the lede here, leaving out the all-important Shatner Angle.)