Chertoff plays media for suckers

ABC is a good example. It devotes a two-webpage story to the potential for increased terror activity this summer, with so many “high-profile events,” and has this comment buried in the middle of the first page:

The Department of Homeland Security is quietly [my emphasis] declaring a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

So, it’s “quietly” when ABC writes a two-page story? And, that’s not the worst:

At the moment, the nation's public threat level will remain at yellow, or “elevated,” but not orange, or “high.”

The reasons: There are no specifics indicating an attack on the U.S. is imminent, and U.S. officials do not want to be accused of trying to inject themselves into the presidential campaign.

No, they’re not going to “inject” themselves into the campaign.

They’ll just “quietly insert” themselves.