“The Ricin Scare That Wasn’t”

Remember the Texas dorm ricin scare last weekend? “If you were watching cable news, you probably encountered quite a few headlines like ‘Deadly Poison Discovery,’ on MSNBC or perhaps, ‘Ricin Scare’ beneath CNN’s ever-present ‘Security Watch’ banner. The accompanying reports — doctors providing extensive descriptions of the potential symptoms of Ricin poisoning, anchors noting there is no antidote to ricin poisoning, etc. — soon provided viewers with all of the ingredients to imagine just how awful this scenario might prove to be,” Public Eye’s Hillary Profita says.

Of course, by Sunday, after more testing following the preliminary results, it became apparent that the substance found in the dorm was not actually ricin.

Yet that turn of events wasn’t touted nearly as often or as prominently as previous news that it might be ricin. Read more…