The whole episode of Osama bin Laden’s capture and killing suppressed flow of other news items globally. It became the most sought after news – sticking millions of people to TV channels and computer screens.
The Wall Street Journal reports that that 56 million people were glued to their television screens to watch the US president’s speech, announcing Osama’s killing, making it the biggest audience in the recent history.
Since the President’s speech, the media world over reported whatever they got, without censorship and irrespective of examining the news value and its authenticity.
The question is: to what extent the media coverage of Osama’s killing was balanced?
After the killing, President Obama stated that photographs of the slain Osama will not go public – for fear that it may become a propaganda tool. “There is no doubt that bin Laden is dead. Certainly there is… no doubt among al-Qaida members that he is dead. And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference,” Obama said.
Interestingly there was hardly any media organisation left which failed to publish the ‘photograph’ of Osama – which, actually has not been officially issued by the US authority yet. There is much doubt on the authenticity of the photograph used by the media – to be true.
News headlines of several news channels and newspapers have not been balanced in portraying the message – especially the US media has been unfair in reporting the news.
Some newspapers and tabloids in the US used the sickest word in their headlines with a photograph of Osama.
Here are a few sick headlines.
The Daily News titles, “Rot in Hell.”
The Examiner, “The butcher of 9/11 is dead.”
The New York Post, “Got him! Vengeance at last! US nails the bastard!”
The Washington Examiner ran a special edition under the headline, “We Got Him!”
These headlines indicate that the killing was not intended for justice but for revenge.
However, if we talk about a little liberal newspapers, we can consider The New York Times, which ran titles like, “Bin Laden killed by US forces in Pakistan”, “Dead”, “Bin Laden Killed” and “Obama gets Osama”.
The Washington Post, titled “Justice has been done” – a headline directly quoting US President Barack Obama with sub-head, “US forces kill Osama bin Laden”.
As far as headlines are concerned, media in the Indian subcontinent has been a little balanced.
The Hindustan Times titled, “US kills Osama in Pakistan.”
The Times of India, “US kills Osama bin Laden, blows Pak cover.”
The Indian Express, “US kills Osama bin Laden in Pak, world put on high alert.”
However, as far as news reporting is concerned, Indian media too reported without checking the authenticity of the news.
What is in the name?
Only one letter differs in the name of US president Obama and former Al Qaida chief Osama.
However, it was quite strange that some officials and media persons wrongly interchanged the name while referring to them.
For example, U.S. Senator Dan Coats was one of the officials to publicly commit such a ‘mistake’ while talking to a radio interview.
Asked on WOWO 1190 AM about possible retaliation by al-Qaida after bin Laden was shot to death in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Coats said, “The threat is still there regardless of whether Obama was killed or not.”
It is remarkable that Coats referred to Osama bin Laden as “Obama” three times in the interview.