Stumbling on bin Laden story
I was shocked but not very surprised by the Obama administration’s stepping on their own story about the shooting of Osama bin Laden.
I was not surprised because I know the Page Theory of Breaking News. It holds that the first casualty of any major breaking news event is the truth.
I came up with this theory when I served many decades ago as a drafted army public information specialist. (Hey, it was a safer job than helicopter door gunner.)
Stories filtered through military offices have a built-in contradiction. Aimed at a civilian culture that values information, they are produced by a military culture that values secrecy.
The result can be something of a mess, even a scandal. The death of Pat Tillman and the rescue of Jessica Lynch come immediately to mind. Both of those stories turned out to be quite the opposite of their initial reports. I was only shocked in this case that the skinback came so soon and with such awkwardness.
Here is Bin Laden, said Brennan, “hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield. I think it really just speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years.”
At a Pentagon briefing that day, a senior intelligence official repeated that Bin Laden “and some other male combatants on the target appeared to use—certainly did use women as shields."
But the “narrative” of Bin Laden shooting at U.S. commandos from behind an innocent woman lasted no more than a day.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a new narrative, provided by the Defense Department: The people who fired at SEAL Team Six died on the first floor before the commandos went upstairs and found Bin Laden, who "was not armed."
In the new narrative, the woman who was one of bin Laden’s wives lunged at the SEAL and was shot in a leg. Bin Laden was killed with a shot to the head. A woman was killed on the first floor, Carney said. “Whether or not she was being used as a shield or trying to use herself as a shield or simply caught in crossfire is unclear," Carney said. But we do know that bin Laden was upstairs, unable to use her as a shield.
Carney blamed the earlier reports on the "fog of war." But the fog of war usually results in confusion. The female-human-shield narrative was notably consistent—like a story that American officials want the world. What better way to discredit bin Laden’s stock in the Muslim world than to portray him as hiding behind a woman?
But, alas, it was not so. Talk abut a buzzkill.
Just as Americans are feeling really good about our military capabilities and the success of courageous SEAL Team Six, we’re brought down to the earth by the inability of the Pentagon and the administration to get the bin Laden story straight.
Don’t be shocked if the narrative changes again. After all, we have not only a major story here in terms of the Page Principle but it’s also a major military story. That element adds multiple layer of opportunities for a great story to get all fouled up.
The truth of the matter is, that this administration can not get out of its own way.
And to be totally honest one must go to the Leader and hold him responsible.
Posted by: paul | May 07, 2011 at 06:39 AM