Bomb Suspect Images Result In Witch Hunt, Not Arrests

There has been a lot of shady reporting regarding the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this week. CNN was criticized yesterday after it falsely reported that a suspect had been ID’d and arrested by police. Now, new images showing the alleged bomb suspect have sparked another witch hunt.

The photos were published by the NY Post under the headline “Bag Men” and with the subtitle: “Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” According to the article, the bomb suspect image was passed around between officials on Thursday as they searched for person responsible for the bombing.

Police reportedly believe that the bombs, which were made out of pressure cookers and metal shards, were most likely brought to the scene in a large duffel bag. Authorities have been scanning photos from the marathon looking for suspicious characters carrying large bags. These two apparently fit the bill.

The bomb suspect image quickly went viral on the internet and was eventually picked up by media publications. But shortly after the photos were published, it was revealed that the two men in the image were not considered suspects.

According to John Miller of CBS, the photo was likely passed around by police officers but it does not show potential suspects. According to Miller, the photo was picked up by officials after it went viral online. But after examining the photos, police decided that the two men were not suspects.

Miller said: “Those are not the pictures that are going to be released today by the authorities … Here’s what happens. Those pictures were on the Internet yesterday morning and then they started going viral on different sites, and then different intelligence fusion centers around the country picked those up and they post them into bulletins and say any law enforcement agencies who can identify these people, we’ll take that information. Then it ends up leaking back to the newspaper, so it comes out in one big circle.”

The NY Post wrote an article today saying that the two men in the photo had been cleared by police. The paper also released a statement saying that it stood by its “Bag Men” story

The statement reads: “We stand by our story … The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects.”

According to the Washington Times, the FBI is set to release images of the bomb suspect later today at a press briefing.