Jon Stewart called for the White House to release the photo of bin Laden, not because it will quell down the conspiracy talk, but for different reasons.
Personally, the best reason in my mind for releasing the pictures is that we've been fighting this war for nearly ten years. Thousands of U.S. deaths, tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died, and we've seen nearly zero photographic evidence of it. Remember how long the media had to fight to show military coffins returning from overseas?
You probably don't remember, because you saw pictures the day they won the case, and not since.
Maybe we should always show pictures, of bin Laden, of our wounded service people, pictures of maimed innocent civilians. We can only make decisions about war if we see what war actually is, and not as a video game where bodies quickly disappear, leaving behind a shiny gold coin.
Which, from what I understand, is going up. By the way, the White House announced today it officially decided not to release the bin Laden photo. Instead, to keep it a secret, they're going to airdrop it into an affluent Pakistani suburb, so it won't be found for years.
Video and transcript below the fold.
Remember last week? The President of the United States released his birth certificate, and you thought, finally we will have a rest period for those clamoring to see documentation of an event most are already comfortable occurred. And then we killed Osama bin Laden. I hope you enjoyed your respite.
5/3/2011:
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-SC: I think we have to release the photos.
ABC NEWS: The photos have to be released.
STEVE CLEMONS: They need to release these two photos simultaneously.
ERIC BOLLING: I say release the photos, Mr. President.
We must! Because a photo will end the speculation. Just like the Zapruder film put a rest to all that JFK business. People saw that and went, I'm satisfied. But you know what? I'm all for healthy skepticism, and even though bin Laden's widow positively identified the body to Pakistani authorities, why wouldn't we release the headshot of bin Laden's head shot?
5/3/2011:
MATT LAUER: People within the administration who have seen the images describe them as gruesome, as you might expect.
DAVID MARTIN: I've had it described to me, and it does sound very gruesome.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: The picture is very gory. He has a gaping wound above his left eye, there's blood, there's brain tissue...
Uh-huh. Too gory? Yeah, have you met us? From 8pm on, every show on television we watch begins with an internal tracking shot of a gaping would above someone's left eye pulling out, only to reveal half a hooker in a dumpster discovered by a child on a bicycle.
You know what we call it? Primetime.
You know what? Let us help with the autopsy. Show us the picture. We won't be disgusted. You're more likely to hear from us, "Oh you can tell the subcutaneous hemorrhaging, the shot was fired from a close proximity, although the exit wound suggests a modified AR-15 assault rifle. I learned that on Bones."
That's right, looks like the leader of al-Qaeda is al-Qae-dead. (puts on sunglasses)
Oh David Caruso, is there nothing your sunglasses can't fix?
Come on, man, we can take the gore. Any other reason we can't see the picture?
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (5/4/2011): It's tricky because you can inflame people.
FOX NEWS (5/3/2011): Will the release of bin Laden's proof of death photos provoke a retaliatory attack?
ED HENRY (5/3/2011): If you put it out there, it may inflame the Muslim world.
Yeah, the extremists over there already hate us, and I don't know if you know this, but the Muslim world sees pretty graphic images of people we kill, on purpose or accidentally, all the time.
(graphic images of dead bodies on al-Jazeera)
Jarring, huh? Sometimes they don't even have to see it on TV, just out the window. You know the tragic collateral damage of war is the subject of al-Jazeera's entire 6am show, Mourning Joe.
But I will say this to the White House, even if you're not going to release the image to the public, there are other ways to quell any "he's not dead" rumors. Invite a bunch of journalists to view the pictures in private. They can see for themselves, and while you're at it, turn the whole thing into a haunted house. Let reporters feel Osama's brains and eyeball. "Oh man, are those jelly beans, or...?"
Personally, the best reason in my mind for releasing the pictures is that we've been fighting this war for nearly ten years. Thousands of U.S. deaths, tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died, and we've seen nearly zero photographic evidence of it. Remember how long the media had to fight to show military coffins returning from overseas?
You probably don't remember, because you saw pictures the day they won the case, and not since.
Maybe we should always show pictures, of bin Laden, of our wounded service people, pictures of maimed innocent civilians. We can only make decisions about war if we see what war actually is, and not as a video game where bodies quickly disappear, leaving behind a shiny gold coin.
Which, from what I understand, is going up. By the way, the White House announced today it officially decided not to release the bin Laden photo. Instead, to keep it a secret, they're going to airdrop it into an affluent Pakistani suburb, so it won't be found for years.
Jon also looked at the media obsession over bin Laden's death would affect everything from Obama's re-election chances to stock prices. And then he had on revisionist "historian" David Barton. This, of course, went long. And epically so. The part that aired (parts 1, 2) were just the beginning, as the extended web-only segments ran an EXTRA HALF HOUR LONG.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Yes, they talked for quite a bit. Jon really pushed back, but Barton always seemed to have an answer for everything. I think we'll need a team of experts to comb through what Barton said for the inaccuracies and misrepresentations and outright lies.
Meanwhile, Stephen looked at bin Laden's lavish lifestyle, and then at the utter failure of Atlas Shrugged at the box office. He also managed to wander in on David Letterman during his show.