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The Boston Manhunt as a “Political” Event

Columnist Glenn Greenwald describes how people were quick to form opinions based on little information.

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Boston Bombing News.(Photo: alejandro bustamante campillo / Flickr)Columnist Glenn Greenwald describes how, in the wake of the Boston bombings, people formed opinions about the world and government based on little information.

In this conversation with Bill, The Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald describes the manhunt for the perpetrators of the Boston marathon bombings as a “political event” that connects to larger questions about our culture, and explains how, in the wake of the event, people were forming opinions about the world and government based on little information.

“What I saw was everybody glued to the television in order to observe and engage with a very political event,” Greenwald says, “political because it was infused with all kinds of political messages about Muslims, about radicalism, about what the proper role of the police and the military are in the United States.”

“What you could see, in how people were observing, was their political impressions about the world, about their government, about political debates being formed based on the very few incidents that they really pay attention to.”

Watch the full conversation between Bill Moyers and Glenn Greenwald this weekend on Moyers & Company.

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