Osama baloney

This "Osama tape" bunk looks a lot like an exercise in: "We'll show everybody who controls the media."

The video came through IntelCenter, a private group reportedly close to U.S. intelligence. (See the Wiki article.) We get a still photo of Osama, some old video footage of him and an audiotape purportedly made by him. I went to the IntelCenter site and that group did not feature the video plainly on its home page.

At any rate, the AP's Paul Schramm and many others were perfectly aware of this doubtful provenance, and yet began their stories with: "Osama bin Laden said..." or the equivalent, rather than with: "Osama bin Laden was quoted on an apparent al Qaeda tape..."

Clearly Schramm and others know better. So that makes Paul Schramm -- or an editor who rewrote his lead -- and many others in the press members of some hidden network that takes orders from a hidden cell.

(In the old days, Communists behaved that way. Come to think of it, that's still how they behave.)

Why would these "journalists" be so crass? Haven't they been exposed on this point more than once? Sure they have, and they keep it up. So the "hidden persuaders" are sending a message to true journalists: "We run the show. And we want propaganda, not reporting."

Under Bush, unnamed CIA people would sometimes make noises seeming to give these "Osama tapes" credibility. That isn't occurring under Obama. Still, it is fair to wonder whether a group inside the CIA favors promoting this propaganda. After all, when you work for the CIA, who calls the shots? You wouldn't release such a video without its quiet assent if you wanted to keep getting contracts.

And if that's so, what does it say about the press in America and globally? What does it say about the CIA? Who is calling the shots, really?

None dare call it treason.