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[Pristine_Condition]

Check out the lengths to which the AP goes to bury the lead on this story:

Suspect in flight disturbance had California ID

By TERRY COLLINS and MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press – Mon May 9, 9:28 pm ET

Hmm...by the headline, this story doesn't sound very interesting. Let's read on...

SAN FRANCISCO – The passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco. He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door.

"I kept saying to myself: 'What's he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?'" passenger Angelina Marty said.

Another shocked passenger, Andrew Wai, thought, "Could this be it? Are we going down?"
Within moments Sunday, a flight attendant tackled Rageh Almurisi. Authorities do not yet have a motive.

Hmm. No motive. Who is this guy, anyway?

While Almurisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., has no clear or known ties to terrorism, authorities say, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week.

Oh, so he's just a guy from California.

Federal agents are investigating Almurisi's background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card, authorities said.

Yemen, a nation at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been a focus of U.S. officials because one of the most active branches of al-Qaida operates in the remote part of the country.

Nice of the Associated press to take five fucking paragraphs to tell us that this guy is not actually from California, but from Yemen.

A cousin of the suspect described him as an educated, easygoing person who had arrived in Northern California a year-and-a-half ago from Yemen in search of better opportunities.

So he had only been here for a year and a half.

He was unable to find work in Vallejo, a town of 100,000 across the bay from San Francisco hit hard by the real estate bust, and recently moved to New York where his brother lived in search of better luck, said Rageh Almoraissi, 29, of Vallejo.

So, he was a jobless guy from Yemen, moving from nearby dense population center to dense population center.

Almurisi had not told his extended family in California that he was returning to the area, Almoraissi said.

"He's very laid back, he's always smiling, he's always laughing. He's not an angry person," Almoraissi said. "Everybody's worried about him. It's not typical of him."

Almoraissi said he could not imagine what may have caused his cousin to act as authorities allege he did on the plane, but said he was certain Almurisi was not a terrorist. He said his cousin did not show an interest in politics and was not intensely religious.

This is helpful, because the family knew all about this guy, except for his plans to travel coast-to-coast, or why he was acting crazy on the plane.

"He might have seriously mistaken the cockpit for the bathroom," Almoraissi said. "He's only been on three planes in his whole life." Almurisi was taking classes in California to learn English but was not happy with his progress, his cousin said.

Almurisi went toward the cockpit door 30 minutes before the flight from Chicago was supposed to land on Sunday night, San Francisco airport police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said. Almurisi was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant.

At last! The Associated Press offers us some possible cause for this strange behavior!

Whew! With all that talk of jobless young men from Yemen, I was starting to worry. glad the AP is clearing this up!

Marty, 35, recalled Monday that she and other passengers on the plane were stunned when they saw Almurisi walking down the aisle. She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic translated that Almurisi said "God is Great!" in Arabic.

Wai, 27, also remembered on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling "Allahu Akbar."

"There was no question in everybody's mind that he was going to do something," Marty said.

A male flight attendant tackled Almurisi, and other crew members and passengers, including a retired Secret Service agent and a retired San Mateo police officer, helped subdue him as he banged on the door, police said.

WTF?

A man from Yemen, days after the death of Osama bin Laden, rushes the front of a plane that's about to land, starts banging on the cockpit door, screaming "Allahu Akbar!" convincing all the passengers that "he was going to do something," forcing them and the crew to tackle him, and the best headline to this story you can come up with is "Suspect in flight disturbance had California ID?"

And it takes you FIFTEEN PARAGRAPHS to get to the "Allahu Akbar!" part?

You choose to offer the explanation to your readers that "he might have seriously mistaken the cockpit for the bathroom," BEFORE you mention the "Allahu Akbar!" part?

His arms were placed in plastic handcuffs. A pilot said over the loudspeaker that everything was going to be was OK to cheers and applause.

"Everybody was fixated on him," Marty said about Almurisi. "You never think that something like that would happen in your life."

Wai also said Almurisi appeared "fidgety" in his seat when he saw him on the way to the bathroom earlier in the flight.

The Boeing 737 carrying about 162 people landed safely at 9:10 p.m. Almurisi was placed into police custody and flight attendants were trying to soothe shaken and crying passengers.

"We were all looking at our lives flash before our eyes," said Wai, a fourth-year medical student who flew in to visit his sister.

After departing the plane, Wai took pictures of Almurisi lying face first on the airport terminal floor with at least eight officers surrounding him and about another half-dozen officers nearby.

Almurisi was later put onto a stretcher.

Federal authorities took Almurisi into custody Monday morning after he spent the night at the San Mateo County jail, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti. Almurisi was being held on suspicion of interfering with a flight crew, a federal offense, authorities said.

No one else was hurt and the airport continued operating normally with security levels unchanged, Rodriguez added.

There were two other mid-air disturbances elsewhere on Sunday.

A 34-year-old man from Illinois tried to open a plane door on a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago. Investigators questioned him, but did not file charges.

There was a security scare aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego, prompting it to land in Albuquerque, N.M. Authorities did not release any more details, except to say that "no suspicious devices" were found. No one was arrested.

That was some damn fine reporting, AP.

When I was working on my degree in journalism, we would call what you did there "burying the lead," but I guess things have changed a lot since then. Things like your news organization being scared to death of offending groups like CAIR, huh?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_disturbance_19

 

[elrechazado]

You are a racist. AP is just reporting the facts, what do you want???

/s

 

[linko9]

Wow, that is truly disgusting. I don't even understand what their agenda is in this case other than distorting the news just for the hell of it.

 

[kamspy]

Thanks for posting this. Crazy the news hasn't picked it up. Maybe I don't check enough outlets, but the Google news on my phone doesn't have it (yeah, not very thorough).

Still, interesting. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again, fuck the AP.

 

[SouthernDragon]

wtf?

 

[Kinitari]

Er, I think people think Allahu-Akhbar is some sort of battle cry. Muslims say "Allahu-Akhbar" and "AstakhfurAllah" and whatnot ALL the time. It's like saying "Oh god" or "Dear god" or "I swear to god".

What he said is absolutely no indication of violent intent. His actions are far far far more incriminating than anything that came out of his mouth.

 

[SolKane]

Maybe it was just an ironic "Allah Akbar" to express frustration, the way Jews will say "oy vey!" Like, "Allah Akbar, someone forgot to flush!"

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Maybe he was shouting about Admiral Ackbar, just trying to give the passengers a laugh by referencing a popular internet meme.

 

[Something Wicked]

Congratulations, Mr. Almurisi, you have just won an free, all-inclusive trip to Guantanamo Bay.

 

[Agnostic]

Well, a cockpit does sound like a place that can be used to urinate in.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Well, a cockpit does sound like a place that can be used to urinate in.

Good point.

 

[spiderman123]

I usually yell God's name when I'm passing a dookie or really need to use the bathroom

 

[tokkun]

Wai, 27, also remembered on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling "Allahu Akbar."

My cousin's friend's barber's illegitimate son said that the AP probably didn't want to headline a quote from second or third-hand story.

 

[Cyan]

I notice you suspiciously failed to bold the part where he got gang-tackled by passengers... what are you trying to hide?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

this is great.

 

[_Isaac]

Your thread title isn't that much better.

 

[giga]

This phrase is recited by Muslims in many different situations. For example, when they are very happy, to express approval, to praise a speaker, or as a battle cry, during times of extreme stress. In the Islamic world, instead of applause, often someone will shout takbir and the crowd will respond "Allahu Akbar" in chorus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takbir

 

[GoldenEye 007]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takbir

I'm not sure that helps at all. Maybe he was happy he finally found the bathroom?

 

[beast786]

Yes, Allah Huakbar means I will blow up the plane for fact !!!!


What an idiotic OP.


And I am also glad you broke down every single sentence. Because, you know without your help there was no way I would understand.


SMH.

 

[giga]

I'm not sure that helps at all. Maybe he was happy he finally found the bathroom?

Just showing that the phrase isn't always used for battle cries.

 

[effzee]

Liberal media out to get us again.

 

[GillianSeed79]

Wow, that is truly disgusting. I don't even understand what their agenda is in this case other than distorting the news just for the hell of it.

Do you know how the AP works? There are AP reporters, yes, but many times the AP doesn't actually write the story. They may pull stories from several news organizations, rewrite it and throw it up on the wire. It sounds like a poorly written story cobbled together from several different articles.

 

[tino]

Maybe he was shouting about Admiral Ackbar, just trying to give the passengers a laugh by referencing a popular internet meme.

That's what I was going to say.

 

[GillianSeed79]

Thanks for posting this. Crazy the news hasn't picked it up. Maybe I don't check enough outlets, but the Google news on my phone doesn't have it (yeah, not very thorough).

Still, interesting. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again, fuck the AP.

When did the AP turn into Fox News? You do realize the entire foundation of news reporting would cease to exist without the AP? What do you think 99 percent of your newspaper/television news/radio news/online news consists of?

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

Man what do you even do in that situation as a passenger? Terrifying position to be in.

 

[Chuck (Old)]

I'm not going to give this terrorist the benefit of the doubt. Everybody over the age of 3 knows that pilots are at the front of an aircraft, not the fucking lavatories.

 

[Byakuya769]

My cousin's friend's barber's illegitimate son said that the AP probably didn't want to headline a quote from second or third-hand story.

Winning.

 

[GillianSeed79]

Sorry, my last posts may have come off as disrespectful and attacking other posters. The general idea behind the AP is a massive pool of news gathering resources. Nearly every news organization subscribes to and allows their content to be used by the AP. Say like the recent tornadoes or the unrest in Syria or, the AP is pulling stories from all over the world, reworks them and supplies them to subscribers. Obviously, a tiny paper or TV station in the middle of nowhere doesn't have reporters everywhere. The AP lets them have that information. The AP picking up a story is actually a big honor for most journalists, even if they don't get explicit credit most of the time.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Sorry, my last posts may have come off as disrespectful and attacking other posters. The general idea behind the AP is a massive pool of news gathering resources. Nearly every news organization subscribes to and allows their content to be used by the AP. Say like the recent tornadoes or the unrest in Syria or, the AP is pulling stories from all over the world, reworks them and supplies them to subscribers. Obviously, a tiny paper or TV station in the middle of nowhere doesn't have reporters everywhere. The AP lets them have that information. The AP picking up a story is actually a big honor for most journalists, even if they don't get explicit credit most of the time.

Nice theory, except both the reporters involved in writing this story are AP San Francisco bureau reporters, and the story happened in San Francisco.

They did pull quotes for the story, from Andrew Wai , a passenger interviewed on KGO-TV, which were attributed as such. The quotes from Angelina Marty are apparently first-hand quotes, since they aren't attributed to another source as is the AP's SOP.

My cousin's friend's barber's illegitimate son said that the AP probably didn't want to headline a quote from second or third-hand story.

So you think the two separate statements from two different passengers recorded by the AP and KGO-TV are false? What is your basis for that?

 

[Dude Abides]

Indeed. A better headline would have been "Scary Mooslem Almost Takes Down Flight By Pounding on Door; Real 'Murcans Very Scared."

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Just showing that the phrase isn't always used for battle cries.

But terribly awkward and out of place to yell on an airplane, no? In fact anyone yelling anything on and airplane is cause for concern and these actions aren't terribly surprising.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Funny, Reuters, who is usually more PC than the AP, had no problem finding the lead:

Yemeni man yelled "God is Greatest" on flight: prosecutor

SAN FRANCISCO | Tue May 10, 2011 7:38pm EDT

(Reuters) - A Yemeni man yelled "God is greatest" in Arabic as he tried to barge into the cockpit of an American Airlines flight over the weekend, a federal prosecutor told a judge in the case on Tuesday.

Rageh Al-Murisi, 28, has been charged with interfering with a flight crew for the incident on Sunday aboard American Airlines flight 1561, which was bound for San Francisco from Chicago with 162 people on board.

About 20 minutes before the plane landed, Al-Musiri allegedly tried to open the cockpit door, ramming his shoulder into it until a flight attendant and passengers subdued him, according to a criminal complaint issued on Monday.

Assistant U.S. attorney Elise Becker, in arguing that Al-Murisi was a threat to public safety, told U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson that the defendant, who boarded the flight with no luggage, was heard to yell "Allahu Akbar," or "God is greatest" in Arabic during the incident.

Flight records show that the hijackers behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, shouted the same thing, Becker told the court.

Becker also said Al-Murisi was carrying only $47, several forms of identification and an Apple computer charger on the flight.

Larson ordered Al-Murisi to remain in jail until a hearing on Friday to determine whether he could be freed on bail.

Al-Musiri's actions aboard Flight 1561 came on the same day Reynel Alcaide, a 34-year-old passenger aboard Continental Airlines flight 546 from Houston to Chicago, allegedly tried to open the emergency door in mid-flight.

Alcaide, a resident of Burbank, Illinois, was subdued by passengers and crew members and the flight was diverted to St. Louis, where it landed safely.

A federal law enforcement official said investigators are looking into possible links between the two incidents, but have not found any connection.

The FBI continues to investigate both cases, and the bureau has not found any indication the two men had ties to any militant group.

In light of the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 in Pakistan by U.S. Navy SEAL commandos, federal officials have warned of possible retaliation by the group.

Al-Murisi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted of interfering with a flight crew.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...M920110510?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

No luggage either.

Huh...

But you guys are right. I'm a total asshole for pointing out this story. I'm sure I certainly deserved to be called a racist. And you guys are sooooo much better than me.

 

[Cyan]

Indeed. A better headline would have been "Scary Mooslem Almost Takes Down Flight By Pounding on Door; Real 'Murcans Very Scared."

No, this was San Francisco, didn't you hear? All the passengers were probably libruls/fake americans.

 

[Freshmaker]

That was some damn fine reporting, AP.

When I was working on my degree in journalism, we would call what you did there "burying the lead," but I guess things have changed a lot since then. Things like your news organization being scared to death of offending groups like CAIR, huh?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_disturbance_19

Fox has a journalism school?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Funny, Reuters, who is usually more PC than the AP, had no problem finding the lead:



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...M920110510?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

No luggage either.

Huh...

But you guys are right. I'm a total asshole for pointing out this story. I'm sure I certainly deserved to be called a racist. And you guys are sooooo much better than me.

you, sir, are not the asshole here. if you're beating on the cockpit door yelling shit about God, your intentions were clear...though you were doomed to failure.

 

[beast786]

No luggage either.

Huh...

.

And an Apple charger.


What has this world gone crazy.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Interesting:

Late Sunday, a Yemeni man who had lived in New York was tackled by passengers on an American Airlines flight to California when he began pounding on the cockpit door about 30 minutes before landing.

The man, Rageh Almurisi, 28, may have thought it was a rest room. "He's not a terrorist, trust me," said his cousin Rageh Almoraissi, 29, who owns a store in Vallejo, Calif. "You don't knock on a door as a terrorist act. I think it was just a misunderstanding," he added, saying that his cousin has a math degree and loves America.

Almurisi tried the handle of the locked cockpit, and when a flight attendant told him the bathroom was to his left, he rammed the door with his shoulder and "kept yelling and pushing," according to an FBI affidavit.

He was tackled by passengers, including a retired Secret Service agent and a former California cop, and will be charged with interfering with a flight crew.

The cousin said he was sure Almurisi had no evil intent.

"If you don't get radicalized in Yemen, you're not going to get radicalized," Almoraissi said. "He's a really nice guy, always happy and smiling. He loves it here."

Almurisi was moving to California after living in New York for a year with his brother Mohammed, a cabbie who moved back to Yemen.

Cops cordon off area around Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx after discovery of a vehicle with 24 pipelike devices inside. (Danny Iuduci for News)

The cousin said Almurisi is not very worldly. "The first time he came here, the first Asian guy he saw, he asked him if he was related to Jackie Chan. He's not that sophisticated," said Almoraissi.

If Almurisi fell victim to a misunderstanding, it would be the second time for his family.

A distant relative, Hezem Almurisi, was briefly detained last August because his traveling companion on a Chicago-to-Amsterdam flight packed a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, watches taped together and three large knives. "It was stupid," Almoraissi said. "He was separating everything people asked him to send to Yemen by taping them together based on who was supposed to get what."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...of_osama_bin_laden_revenge.html#ixzz1M16DdzPg

What an odd coincidence.

These two guys are just just stupid and not worldly, according to the cousin, yet their particular brand of stupidity, in both guys, just happened to manifest itself in ways that seem a whole helluva lot they were trying to fuck with an airplane.

Wow, these coincidences are really strange. I'm really glad you guys convinced me that there's nothing to this story.

 

[beast786]

Interesting:



Wow, these coincidences are really strange. I'm really glad you guys convinced me that there's nothing to this story.

I heard there was a guy who was going to bring a lotion to the plane that was more than 12oz. But thank god he was stopped at the security.

I believe that was the reason for Home land Security put it on high alert to orange.

 

[Vic]

Er, I think people think Allahu-Akhbar is some sort of battle cry. Muslims say "Allahu-Akhbar" and "AstakhfurAllah" and whatnot ALL the time. It's like saying "Oh god" or "Dear god" or "I swear to god".

What he said is absolutely no indication of violent intent. His actions are far far far more incriminating than anything that came out of his mouth.

Doesn't sound like it when shouted at the lungs end with fists waving in the air!

 

[Freshmaker]

Funny, Reuters, who is usually more PC than the AP, had no problem finding the lead:



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...M920110510?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

No luggage either.

Huh...

But you guys are right. I'm a total asshole for pointing out this story. I'm sure I certainly deserved to be called a racist. And you guys are sooooo much better than me.

Doesn't quite build the fearblasted terrorist retribution bombing/hijacking hellscape trend piece you wanted the AP to paint tho.

Idiot tackled on plane.

There's your headline.

 

[jamesinclair]

When I was working on my degree in journalism, we would call what you did there "burying the lead," but I guess things have changed a lot since then.

Yeah, because newspapers have done so well.

Maybe it turns out that putting the entire fucking story in your first paragraph gives no incentive for people to continue reading?

By sprinkling the facts around, you make the person read the entire article.

Seems like good business sense.


In Pristine_Condition's world...
Harry Potter, 13, goes to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. By year 7, he has engaged in a battle with an evil wizard, Voldermort. Harry Potter kills Voldermort and lives happily ever after.

Yeah, that sure will sell sell millions of copies.

 

[DR3AM]

Yeah, because newspapers have done so well.

Maybe it turns out that putting the entire fucking story in your first paragraph gives no incentive for people to continue reading?

By sprinkling the facts around, you make the person read the entire article.

Seems like good business sense.


In Pristine_Condition's world...
Harry Potter, 13, goes to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. By year 7, he has engaged in a battle with an evil wizard, Voldermort. Harry Potter kills Voldermort and lives happily ever after.

Yeah, that sure will sell sell millions of copies.

spoiler perhaps?

 

[Cyan]

In Pristine_Condition's world...
Harry Potter, 13, goes to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. By year 7, he has engaged in a battle with an evil wizard, Voldermort. Harry Potter kills Voldermort and lives happily ever after.

Yeah, that sure will sell sell millions of copies.

I hate to side with someone whining about teh librul medias, but that is what you're supposed to do in a news article.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Another coincidence about the relative who was arrested by Dutch authorities:

The men had a number of cellphones and other items in their bags that made officials suspicious. They also, allegedly, were ticketed for flights that they did not board, sending their bags on flights they were not on.

Coincidence.

 

[nib95]

So what are you suggesting Pristine? Not sure they're terrorists. Stupid, yes, terrorist, likely not. Maybe they're in to some sort of immigration fraud or some other dodgy scam or something lol.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Yeah, because newspapers have done so well.

Maybe it turns out that putting the entire fucking story in your first paragraph gives no incentive for people to continue reading?

By sprinkling the facts around, you make the person read the entire article.

Seems like good business sense.


In Pristine_Condition's world...
Harry Potter, 13, goes to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. By year 7, he has engaged in a battle with an evil wizard, Voldermort. Harry Potter kills Voldermort and lives happily ever after.

Yeah, that sure will sell sell millions of copies.

That's great, if you want to turn back the clock of professional journalism practices.

This is first-day Journalism 101 right here. The old Inverted Pyramid:

 

[tiff]

Another terrorist thwarted under Obama's watch, and the liberal media tries to cover it up. SMH

 

[Ashes]

That was some damn fine reporting, AP.

When I was working on my degree in journalism, we would call what you did there "burying the lead," but I guess things have changed a lot since then. Things like your news organization being scared to death of offending groups like CAIR, huh?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110510/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_disturbance_19

I've done that as well.

Pretty sure this falls under house styles. If you have ever read the Daily Mail here in the UK, this how they write their stories a lot of the times.

Ironically, it's because they are such a right wing paper, that they kind of have to do this. Fox news does this on their news chanels as well. Always working up to stories.

AP is pretty huge.

Surely you must have seen this style used many different times?

Normally they do this with older news, like court coverings or something.

edit: Grr, the daily mail online has different editorial guidelines? why can't they have that with with press edition... If you work in media monitoring, you'll know what I mean, when I say what a pain it is to read that paper. No wonder Daily Mail online is doing so much better then it's press edition.

 

[Dude Abides]

Anyone who reads the actual article can see that the scary terrorist angle is presented pretty clearly right up front, even if the headline is insufficiently scary for GAF's own Annie Jacobsen and his crusade against the lie-beral media.

While Almurisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., has no clear or known ties to terrorism, authorities say, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week.

Others can decide for themselves why Annie bolded the bit about Vallejo while ignoring the invocation of the terrorist angle in the very same sentence.

 

[Ashes]

Anyone who reads the actual article can see that the scary terrorist angle is presented pretty clearly right up front, even if the headline is insufficiently scary for GAF's own Annie Jacobsen and his crusade against the lie-beral media.



Others can decide for themselves why Annie bolded the bit about Vallejo while ignoring the invocation of the terrorist angle in the very same sentence.

Its not even the liberal ones that do this. Well at least here in the uk, it's the right wing press.

I agree with the op that its horrible journalism; but it's for different reasons.