As the inimitable Robert Duncan/jesus gil points out, we’re already seeing all sorts of posts about how no one would ever suspect the sniper kid of doing such a thing. Similar stories about Mr. Muhammad are out as well. These stories are an insult.

No one is likely to say, “Yep. I knew that kid must have been behind all this.” If they did: (1) they’d get themselves in hot water with the police for not having come forward sooner; (2) they’d raise the ire of victims who, in this litigious society, might well sue them; (3) they’d set themselves up for a defamation suit by the accused in the event the accused is acquitted; (4) they’d make themselves targets for any criminally-minded admirers of the accused; and (5) few people would believe them anyway.

So item 274 on the wishlist of what ought to be changed about mass media in the early 21st century would be a moratorium on “I never would have thought [blank] could have done something like this” stories.