experience, when you re dealing with military operations, first reports frequently include factual errors. not surprised that small details like the length of the firefight and the identity of the woman killed, not surprising that after 24, 48 hours details were clarified. did osama bin laden have a gun? how can a spokesperson put out all the details? then they say we can t discuss it it any further because it will compromise secret information? it s the inherent nature what the s.e.a.l.s do. you get into their modus operandi. and you don t want to go too much because you reveal how they do business. do you sorry at all for jay carney up there? saying from the podium it was inoperative? i think it s an indication of
these things. why haven t the media reported as many plots and terror alerts under the obama administration? it can t be we re suddenly that much safer. i think there have been fewer threats distributed to law enforcement than in the past. that s part of the matrix, i think. is it possible the bush administration for political reasons chose to play up the war on terror in a way the obama administration has chosen not to? i don t know that the bush administration was doing it for political purposes. they had perhaps a different mindset, and there was a sense of confidence with the obama administration. there was not the need to laert the public every time they thought something was to happen. is there a danger that the media go too far in the other direction? with bin laden dead and with the color-coded alert system having been scrapped that perhaps we get it too complacent about potential threats? i guess that s possible in the wake of killing of bin laden there was concern
some can be put up on the screen. showed him in his little hideout watching himself on tv. jamie mcintyre, why the media fascination with osama bin laden watching himself and whatever else he was doing in the videos? those are the only pictures they have. the white house has set the agenda by releasing these videos and not the picture of bin laden s corpse. we re in the news business. we re about disclosure, and we want to see everything. i actually understand the administration s policy on releasing the death photos, and i think that leon panetta is right when he said that these will ultimately be released. they may not be released by this president but maybe years from now, but eventually they will become public. there was a lot of curiosity what the guy was doing during the ten years. it seems like there was a debate here that almost assumed if we don t see the photos and don t have pictures, did it really
we are on the air right now because we have learned that osama bin laden has been killed. there were dramatic front page headlines the next morning as many americans who went to bed before the story broke first learned that bin laden, indeed, was dead. there you see the miami herald and the new york daily news. a lot probably cheered that particular formulation. the anchors went to ground zero anchoring hour long newscasts at the site of the attack. the overall tone of the coverage reflected the mood of the country, this was a great day for america and a very good day for president obama as well. joining us now to examine this remarkable story, peter baker, white house correspondent for t the new york times. jane hall a former fox news analyst and associate professor at american school of communications and frank sesno
al qaeda and the narrative that bin laden constructed over the past 10 or 15 years. so it was in that aspect a couple of these errors came into effect where, you know, the initial portrayal was that bin laden was using his wife as a human shield. now we know the wife actually charged the raiding party, you know, to try to protect her husband. you have this kind of inane discussion about this million-dollar mansion. i mean, whatever cost it was, it was certainly head and shoulders above, you know, the other houses in the neighborhood. eight times larger than any other house in the neighborhood. and, you know, i guess in a way administration officials face the same dilemma as journalists, which is you want to be fast, sometimes you want to be first before someone else gets their version out but of course you also want to be right. some of the key details the administration was not right. let me turn to your situation one more thing. yeah. yesterday was a much more sophisticated