the bush administration would seek to make news? there was a plot that i remember, seven men were arrested saying they were going to attack the sears tower. i don t think they would have found the sears tower. that became a big story. it did, you know, but you look back and think about the fact that would have believed in 2001 that 19 suicide bombers somehow come to the states and train for a year or two to blow up the pentagon, the world trade center? it didn t sound credible. after that all of our assumption were seriously challenged. do you think that media mindset changed over the years when there wasn t a major successful attack at least in this country and maybe more caution on behalf of news organizations. yeah, and we had threat fatigue as well. it didn t seem credibility anymore it could happen because of all the warnings. there was a little bit of the sky is falling that we got from the administration. they began to back off that. also they began to have a better sense
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
i think the administration correctly adjusted the account as they learned more. i don t think anybody lied to us, but i think there is that fog of war. in these things what you hear first is going to be substantially off, and it was. before we go, you reported this week about a stealth helicopter used in the raid. one was left behind when it stalked and blew it up before the navy s.e.a.l.s left. any hesitation about reporting that? that was a secret, and i think perhaps if we had known it and the pictures weren t so obvious we would have thought twice about it. in this case what was left behind, the debris of the mount st. helens -le the hell komt. there were parts talked on websites and plogs and we picked up on that and went with the story that was important and strong. that secret is out now, and there is some concern that the
conservatives i think have most conservatives have. here are some people saying that obama should have given bush more credit. he invited him to ground zero for that, and the former president declined. obama gets the credit when something goes well when he had nothing to do with it. if there s a terror attack, they won t say bush deserves some of the blame for it. it s not going to happen. will this change the media perception of barack obama from what it had been, kind of a overly cautious, consensus-seeking law professor? maybe on the margins. i think the economy is going to weigh him down. here s what could happen. an even wider story. i m not talking about winning re-election. the way it portrayed it. it s the way the media portrays liberals. it it has been viewed for the past couple of generations as being weak on crime and foreign policy and can t be trusted in that area.