Mirandizing the Times Square Bomber

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Matt Steinglass on the arrest of Faisal Shahzad for the attempted Times Square bombing:

One unanswered question: will anyone bother trying to drum up a ridiculous controversy over whether or not the FBI read Mr Shahzad his Miranda rights when they arrested him? I predict not.

Matt wrote that around 7 am this morning. Within minutes, John McCain was on Imus…..drumming up a ridiculous controversy over whether or not the FBI read Mr Shahzad his Miranda rights: “Obviously that would be a serious mistake,” he said. “Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about.” Village idiot Peter King chimed in too. Others will undoubtedly follow.

But then, just to upset everyone’s applecart, when Fox & Friends tried to get some mileage out of this pseudo-controversy this morning, Glenn Beck pushed back: “He’s a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the constitution,” he said. So now Glenn Beck is a voice of reason within the conservative movement? My world has been turned upside down.

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

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