“We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it”
-Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
I was given shocking news last week. It appears that due to this column (the staff calls it a blog but column sounds more impressive), I am being perceived as a member of the media. To be honest I’ve never thought of it that way, but I must admit I like the way it sounds. Who knew?
With this designation comes some privileges, one being the good fortune to have friends suggest topics for me to discuss. A topic that is timely and topical is the media handling of the bin Laden situation. I think it needs to be addressed.
Since President Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed a week ago Sunday, the media has gone completely berserk over this story. Don’t get me wrong, I do agree that we should have celebrated. After all, this guy was not only a menace to the United States and the rest of the world but he was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 plus Americans on that fateful September day nearly 10 years ago. And since then he continued to pronounce that he would kill countless more when next he got the opportunity. So we should indeed have pursued him, found him and killed him.
I’m good with that.
I’m also good with us celebrating in the immediate aftermath. This was a big deal. And I also enjoyed some of the humor that immediately followed. There’s some funny stuff. My favorite was something Conan O’Brien said the day after it happened: “Last night the Dalai Lama implied that the killing of Osama bin Laden was justified. I think his exact quote was, “I love all living things, but that guy was a dick.”
But what came next was simply nuts. We had to have reports of not just how he was killed but also the gruesome details. Where exactly was he shot? Want to see a map of the compound? How about a computer simulation of the raid? Who was with him? Was his wife used as a shield? Oh wait, he has four wives, so which one? Was he on the john? Where was he buried? Why was the funeral service held so fast? Can we see pictures of his body to prove that it’s really him?
This was so far beyond overkill it wasn’t funny. C’mon folks, enough is enough. I wonder if the media was doing way more than reporting, maybe even to the point of rubbing it in. And this rubbing it in thing is a bad idea. This group of fanatics are the last people on earth we need to get more fired up.
Yesterday I even saw a couple of web sites promoting the “wackiest bin-Laden rumors”. This is more than a week after the fact. There are stories about his death, stories about people not believing he’s actually dead, stories about people saying he’s been dead for years. Instead of simply reporting the truth and the facts, the media’s sensationalistic approach is creating controversy and doubt and raising tensions. I just don’t think that’s a good thing.
President Obama, to his credit, made the decision not to release photos of the body, which is good since they were undoubtedly gruesome and would have incited his supporters even more. Can you imagine if the media had gotten a hold of those?
So let’s let this go. We killed the bastard. We celebrated. We rejoiced. Now it’s time to focus on other pressing issues. There sure are enough of them.
I do wonder if there was an alternative to the “shoot to kill” directive? Maybe there should have been. In fact one idea might have been ultimately more painful for ol’ Osama than getting shot. Keep him alive and make him go through airport security every day for the rest of his life.
