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Comment by cyanydeez | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, it's like "At least 10 people with a red sweater on Tuesday have gone missing".

Or stupider: At least 10 people flipped a coin and it ended up on Heads!

The fact that it reached CNN levels of stupid means journalism is part of the overall USA's intentional brain drain.

It's worse than that, it's 11 people who wore sweaters in various shades of red, orange, and pink, at some point in the past ten years.

“Anthony Chavez, 79, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory until he retired in 2017. He reportedly disappeared on May 8, 2025.”

To be fair to CNN, this article is about an FBI investigation.

It’s sanewashing.

4 separate government agencies are putting time and effort into something.

The headline is accurate. The reporting is accurate.

Should CNN not report what the government is doing?

Or are you confused and assume that the investigation has returned and finding? Or maybe, we should highlight the things the government is doing.

Why do you find what the article is saying sane?

If the weather service starts an investigation into Tuesday’s rain shower, that should be reported. But if that rain shower was completely within the normal range of weather for that location and time of year, that should also be part of the reporting. This article takes everything from the government at face value.

CNN should accurately report just how bizarre the reasoning behind these investigations appears to be.

I wonder if it is reasoning. To me the sequence looks something like this:

1. The story is promulgated by a long-retired ex-FBI analyst

2. Fox News picks it up and runs with it

3. Fox News watchers get excited about it on social media

4. Someone behind a desk at the FBI is assigned to pick up the phone and say tiredly “Yes, yes, we're investigating it all very seriously”

5.The FBI waits for the new Flavor of the Week to distract the Fox News people, then closes the investigation

Meantime, CNN reports on phase 4.

I suspect this is narrative shaping for future purposes. I think the military trying to frantically modernize and adapt is also a sign.

This is the same network that breathlessly covered the obviously fake “drone swarms”.

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