Brianna Lyle : Reading Journal for May 6

I’m choosing to write about the coverage of the Osama bin Laden raid and killing, specifically the May 4^th article “Account tell of One-Sided Battle in Bin Laden Raid” where it is revealed that “ new details emerged about the raid on Bin Laden’s fortified compound that differed from the administration’s initial account of the nearly 40-minute operation.” I find this extremely interesting right off the bet because, from whom I’ve spoken with about the incident, there seems to be an underlying doubt about what actually happened. Even in previous news coverage of the incident, the New York Times has made it difficult to understand what exactly happened saying that Osama was killed in cross fire but then also saying in the same article that Osama was caught in cross fire and then shot in the head, which sounds more like we intentionally shot him in the head than the initial belief that he died in action.

The article from May 4^th also touched on the possibility of showing the American public the photos of Osama after death with Obama decided against after speaking with his war council deciding, “the images of Bin Laden public could incite violence against Americans and would do little to persuade skeptics that the founder of Al Qaeda had been killed” said White House officials said. This article also talks about the change in talk surrounding the shooting; it seems as though Americans were never really engaged in a firefight. “Administration officials said the official account of events has changed over the course of the week because it has taken time to get thorough after-action reports from the Seal team. And, they added, because the Special Operations troops had been fired upon as soon as they touched down in the compound, they were under the assumption that everyone inside was armed. “They were in a threatening and hostile environment the entire time,” one American official said.