In George W. Bush’s Footsteps

The latest videos starring Osama bin Laden are the next act in the media’s staging of Osama bin Laden’s supposed death. But pictures of unknown origin and supposed al-Qaida internet messages can’t obscure the fact that the United States still stubbornly refuses to show indisputable proof of bin Laden’s demise and to publicly disclose the facts surrounding it. So America’s version of the incident remains contradictory. Still, the United States has an obligation to provide scientifically verifiable facts of his death that can be examined by independent experts.

Credit for the fact that America’s version of events is generally accepted throughout the Western world largely belongs to the media. Newspapers, television and radio all have willingly abandoned their journalistic principles and become pliant propaganda tools with their emotional reporting.

Also complicit in this journalistic failure are those who denounce as “conspiracy theorists” anyone demanding verifiable facts or who point out contradictions. There is good reason for more skepticism. Whether it’s WMDs in Iraq, torture in Abu Ghraib or innocent prisoners in Guantanamo, George W. Bush’s “War on Terror” has shown us that lies and cover-ups were high on his agenda.

Obama must first and foremost apply hard facts and the truth to this historically significant incident. Everything else is propaganda, and that doesn’t differentiate it very much from the methods used by the Bush administration.