About half an hour ago, I was greeted by the voice of British PM Tony Blair addressing the world about multiple bombings across the London transit system that are apparent terror attacks. It is unclear how many deaths have happened, as some sources state two fatalities, but MSNBC is carrying coverage from ITN stating up to 20 deaths. I’ve been trying to determine the specific time this happened, as I keep a radio on all night, and the reports are coming in that it happened during the morning rush, which would have been, say, from 2-4 a.m. Eastern time.
Flipping to WCBS-AM brought the opportunity to hear Sky News radio, which was much more insightful than the news stations based in the U.S. If anyone was wondering about what would happen when foreign bureaus were closed at news organizations, this would probably be an example of how coverage changes. Thankfully, today’s technology allows for the easy re-broadcast of foreign television and radio stations across the airwaves here - which is probably better off, in some cases.
The bombings appear to be in retribution for the start of the G8 meeting, although one has to think that an attack coinciding with London winning the 2012 Olympics could be part of it.
[update] Matthew Sheffield has a great rundown of information and blogs also following the story, as he was awake at the time news broke, around 5:30 a.m. Eastern. Blogger Jeff Jarvis points to Command Post, which is all over the situation. Over at hiphopmusic.com, Jay Smooth has a collection of links to London bloggers and Flickr feeds.
[update 10:26 a.m.] Fortune reporter Nelson Schwartz shares his account of being on a bus behind the one blown up in London today.
