One of the reasons I have developed a skeptical and occasionally cynical outlook where news media is concerned, is through personal experience. Whenever I have really known about a situation of circumstance in real life, the news, whether local or American national, has covered it with either an inaccurate spin or in such a way that a false impression is given. Sometimes, the news appears not to cover a gangland style murder perhaps because it might adversely impact real estate values in an upscale neighborhood. Sometimes, the news will sensationalize an occurrence that was actually simply a medical problem. Many times, there is something very significant going on nationally or internationally, and we hear absolutely nothing about it on American mainstream news. Events which don't support a mainstream media agenda aren't reported on, or if they are, are never updated.
On August 11, in Tianjin, China, two explosions occurred. One of them, from video, looked an awful lot like a fiery mushroom cloud. The blasts were picked up by satellites orbiting Earth. Tianjin is a port city which is home to more than thirteen million people. The explosion destroyed a building and left devastation for at least two miles from the initial explosion area. At least a hundred and fifty people are dead following the initial blasts. More than seven hundred are injured. Almost a hundred of them are in critical condition. The families of firefighters have reported them missing, yet the Chinese government does not yet know how many of them are dead or are injured.The government cannot yet offer an estimate of how many people from the area of the port are simply missing. In addition, a number of large building have been destroyed. Several thousand new cars which were delivered to the port have been destroyed. A large amount of imported goods and goods slated to be exported from the port have also been destroyed. The port has been closed in an attempt to prevent chemical spillage into the ocean.
The official word is that the explosion took place in a company who transports a variety of dangerous chemicals. The military has been called in to aid in the control of fires which have been burning now for two days. Many of these workers are suited with gas masks. They are also sampling the air and water in the region. There are concerns that sodium cyanide gas from the explosion may drift from the region and injure or kill citizens in a broader area.
Of course, my skeptical mind keeps going. Were the Chinese really allowing tons of sodium cyanide and other chemicals to be stored in a center with seven million people in close proximity ? Was this a storage facility for the precursors of chemical weapons ? China has recently had some issues with homegrown terrorists. Terrorists from other nations also have some issues with China, especially as they gather rare Earth metals in a number of African nations. Was this a terrorist attack ? Would anyone really admit any of this, once they identified the cause ? Is this a practice run for a terrorist attack elsewhere ? Can we really believe very much of anything told to us via our largest news outlets ?
I am not the only one who thinks this doesn't add up:
http://www.epictimes.com/charlesfaddis/2015/08/toxic-cloud-the-threat-of-terrorist-chemical-attack/
Additional information:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33954844
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/aug/13/tianjin-explosion-in-pictures
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