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February 23, 2003
It was bad enough to learn that Osama bin Laden was not dead, apparently, despite the might of our smart and dumb bombs. We leveled whole mountain ranges and missed him, apparently.
It was bad enough trying to figure out the logic of his message: He doesn't have any use for the devil Saddam and his infidel Iraq regime. And certainly none for us.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was using this as evidence that the two of them were in bed together. That was the kind of puzzling contradiction only spin doctors could explain.
It was bad enough having to listen to the audio tape of Feb.11 every few minutes on the cable news. The latest episode of "Osama bin Laden Rides Again" - a 16-minute production, which premiered on al-Jazeera - was spun in its entirety, or pieces, over and over that day, as if it were on a radio station's Top 40 play list.
But it was too much when the cable networks started bragging about who had the guts to run the tape first, who ran it longer, who was, in effect, the leader in All Osama, All the Time.
"FOX NEWS IS FIRST WITH BIN LADEN TAPE," Broadcasting & Cable's TV Fax trumpeted the next morning. Fox News Channel was the first U.S. network to air it - giving it breaking-news treatment - while CNN and MSNBC cautiously, or timidly, depending on whom you asked, waited for translations.
To make it more "television," all eventually ran the audio or commentary, with file video and stills of bin Laden, leaving unanswered questions about whether the bearded one has undergone extreme makeover sessions in his cave or tomb, and whether he is dead, as usually reliable government intelligence sources had suggested.
My question every time I see a picture of that mass murderer Osama is why haven't they caught the guy and hanged, drawn and quartered him - even if he is dead.
But journalistically, I also question running these messages as if they were tablets being brought down from the mount.
Of course, a basic principle of cable news, as enunciated by Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy is: "Cable will take anything and beat it to an absolutely dead carcass. Bin Laden? That's what they got today. Typical cable news overkill."
Still, doesn't anybody understand there is something wrong about running these tapes? Every time he makes a tape, is it necessary to see his mug on TV?
Just a few months ago, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice was requesting American news operators not to run footage of bin Laden and his virulent anti-American messages. The fear was these hate screeds might contain coded instructions. Secret operatives in our country would take out their Captain Midnight decoding rings and figure out what he is really trying to say.
Was that a false alarm?
Admittedly, this time Washington didn't protest the return of Big Bad bin Laden. Perhaps because he was taking the administration's point about the al-Qaida-Saddam link.
But don't we yet understand the subtext of these messages from the dead or alive?
He is doing it for publicity. Why do you think Hitler was making all those speeches on radio and film? Just to hear himself talk?
These are Osama's press releases. It's obvious in making tapes he wants publicity. Why the heck are we giving him a platform? Aren't we playing into his hands with all this All Osama, All the Time?
The basic thrust of the snake's latest PR handout is to scare us. Terrorists. Suicide bombers are coming. Stay tuned.
I suggest this is not news. We know it already. And we're scared enough. Nobody is complacent.
The latest alert, on the positive side, can even be seen as a boon to the economy, at least for Home Depot. Stock was down, earnings were down. Millions of people last week ran out to buy Saran Wrap and duct tape, or began building a room in the basement where they can hide out against chemical attacks.
We're all ramped up, ready. At least those of us who weren't holding our breath waiting for the finale of "Joe Millionaire."
I realize scaring people has always been TV journalism's main way of communicating. They scare us about everything. Remember the Great Anthrax Plague of 2002?
But it's not in the public interest for the media to pour more oil on the fire.
One thing about Osama and his flacks, they know how to manipulate our media. Drop a tape on them and they stand up and salute. He has a built-in propaganda machine working for him.
All I can say is that it's a good thing they didn't have American TV at the time of Hitler.
TV news, especially cable, seems to be Osama's mindless fifth column.
Yes, we should report if Osama has made another tape. It should be what professionals call "a read story." The anchor reads the copy for one or two minutes. He said X and Y, followed by the spin doctors, who come on to explain we are between Iraq and hard place, or whatever spin. End of story.
My advice is shut up already with the bin Laden tapes. Stop being manipulated by both sides. Somebody in cable news has to say, in the words of Harry S Truman, the buck stops here.
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