The Times really stretches to find fearsome internet

A London-based girl gang apparently blew up a house by pouring a liquid explosive into its mail slot.  Which is Gothic enough, or at least pulp-ish.  But trust The Times to hunt for an internet connection, no matter how slight, or simply hypothetical.  Their report begins with this:

A gang of girls may have used the internet to make a bomb that killed a man and destroyed three homes in their feud with another teenager. [emphasis added]

Or maybe they didn't.  There's no proof, which doesn't stop anyone from lunging at cyberfear.

Put another way: "A gang of girls may have gone to the library to make a bomb."  Or "A gang of girls may have driven a car to get to a shop where they bought bomb supplies."  Doesn't have quite the same ring, eh? 

The article helpfully lists likely ingredients for such a liquid explosive, should the reader be so inclined.  And if you read that on the Web, then maybe you really have used teh internets to make the b0mb.

After those strong opening moves, the article, or the police officers it cites, reaches even further, stretching towards that classic internet-terrorism meme:

“We have seen with recent terrorism trials that there are plenty of things on the web but it would obviously be a disturbing development if a girl gang has decided to settle a dispute in such a dramatic and tragic way.”

(thanks to CoriS, via Twitter)

Comments

[Andy Havens]

But if I make a bomb using this formula from this article, shouldn't the next article read:

"An American man may have used the Times to make a bomb that..."

[Alexandra Kitty]

Old school journalists are terrified of the Internet -- they see Facebook as evil and social networking as a passing fad before everyone gives up the access to getting their thoughts and messages out to a large audience without a gate-keeper and things will go back to the good old days.

So this kind of coverage -- which oozes with anger and resentment -- is far from going away...

[Bryan Alexander]

Andy, it would only have been the Times online, hence: "An American man used the internet to find a webpage to build Something Really Bad."

Sadly true, Alexandra. Fling me more examples, please!