|
Assassination by Headline
By Al
Ruechel | 05-20-02
Lies. Deceit. Hello! Hey!
Anybody there? My God. This stinks.
Bush knew. Says who? Who cares? We do. But wait!
This is nuts. Who needs details?
Forget a weapon. Assassination by headline. Did you see? President
Bush knew? Newspaper headlines shouted. Bush knew what? Please read
on. The attack target? The attack date? It doesn't matter. He did
nothing. Well, maybe nothing. We aren't sure. We'll check later.
Start the smear. The media's rolling. Democrats are gutless. Forget
the facts. We're too stupid. Point the fingers. Ignore the record.
It's open season. Politics are usual. Sell those papers. Boost those
ratings. Create a buzz! Washington smells blood. Liberals love
scandal.
Tell me I'm wrong. Was I just
dreaming? Is the war over? Could 9/11 be prevented? Would anyone do
nothing? Yes, we knew generally. We didn't have specifics! One agent
was correct. His message was ignored. But by the President? Bush
never saw it. They know that now! There were several warnings. But
who to warn? And when to warn. And what to warn. Huge pieces were
missing. Cheney mentioned it before. On TV September 13. Do you
remember that? Congress got a briefing. Does Congress remember that?
The Republican leaders did? Some Democrats remembered, too. Not
Gephardt or Daschle. Is it that obvious? Now isn't that convenient.
There's no smoking gun. Someone must be blamed. Elections are coming
soon. Let's blame the President.
Ann Compton says Bush knew. She told
the radio listeners. His eyes said he knew. It was so obvious then.
He must have known more. Is Ann a mind reader? She must be a
psychic. FBI agents had some details. But the pieces never fit.
Intelligence gatherers didn't share materials. That needs to be
fixed. Let's examine the paper trial. We knew about hijackings
earlier. Bin Laden fingered in 1996. Clinton didn't accept that
report. We could have jailed him. Maybe Clinton knew back then? This
is so incredibly destructive. And what do we gain? Some pre-election
issue against Bush? We are losing focus fast. The enemy is loving
it. There could be nukes around. Another attack is very likely.
I hope you see my point. This isn't
some kind of game. Go ahead and ask the question. But don't create
innuendo that's false. Don't leave out details for effect.
Journalists know the public loves brevity. Yet intentional brevity
breeds deliberate confusion. This isn't about Bush hiding anything!
The records clearly show great concern. Some media idiots forget
their archives. Published stories indicated we knew something. We
didn't know enough to act. The airlines received 15 separate
warnings. This is about how clues disappear. This is about
unintentional communications failings. We are not all perfect.
The FBI agent in Phoenix was
brilliant. His early warnings now seem on target. He didn't get all
the names right. He did know Arab pilots were training. Maybe
profiling would have found them out.
Why can't we accept the September
11th attack? And why must some politicians look for scapegoats? And
why do we, the public, take this?
It's because our complacency silences
our ability to think. We allow the media headlines to shape our
perceptions. Evil deeds hide in the shadows of complex details. If
we pervert those details we loose their meaning. We dare not allow
innuendo to cloud our judgment.
No wonder people distrust politicians
and the media so much.
Editors Note: Now go back and count
the number of words in each of the sentences. The first few
paragraphs grabbed your attention, however, the meat and truth of
the story often times takes just a few more words. Moral of this
story: Don't bet your life on newspaper headlines or those quick
teases you see on TV, unless you don't mind being manipulated!
Al Ruechel, copyright 2002, all
rights reserved
Like today's commentary? Hate it? Send
your comments here..
|
