Oh yes, I am absolutely referring to probably the biggest news story of the year.
The death of Osama bin Laden.
Now, there is a lot of information to sift through. So, picking a starting point is probably the toughest job on my part. But I will try to discuss everything succinctly.
Firstly, I must address the way of how the news spread. I was informed on Facebook, about an hour before President Obama’s speech. As quickly as I saw those statuses, I jumped to Twitter. All the major news sources I follow were posting the unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid in Pakistan, and that President Obama would be addressing the nation at about 11:30 p.m EST.
I read an article on the Huffington Post the next day that there were 4,000 tweets per second. It broke previous records that dealt with Justin Bieber.
Then perhaps the next interest in this newsroom field day. My journalism professor informed us today that news doesn’t just break. It’s more of a constant stream of information. I know counter-terrorism assistant John Brennan was flapping away information that later the White House modified. The pieces of the story are just being strung together, it is hard to grasp the full picture.
Then the news came that Osama bin Laden’s body would be buried at sea within 24 hours to comply with Islāmic tradition and to avoid a rallying site for his extremist followers.
Many news sources, social commentators, and general people began to voice concern on how the United States knows that it was bin Laden. They questioned whether he could just be recognized from photographs, but the main concern was how could the DNA test be done so fast?
Well, I watched Anderson Cooper last night on CNN and the response given on his program seemed the most plausible. One of Cooper’s guests was Dr. Sanjay Gupta, one of he top medical doctors in the country. He recounted that several years ago one of Osama bin Laden’s sisters was treated in America for cancer. When she died, the F.B.I was granted permission to her DNA. The people in charge only had to match bin Laden’s DNA with his sisters’. The only question Dr. Gupta seemed to not have an exact answer on was where this took place. Is it possible bin Laden’s DNA was flown over to the United States or vice versa? Or could they have sent the DNA information over the Internet?
Now reports are just coming in that the C.I.A will release photographic evidence of a deceased bin Laden. I had originally heard they weren’t going to do this because it would enrage the Islāmic world. Well, we’ll see.
So my next post will be links to some of the best articles and coverage I’ve found.
I can’t wait for conspiracy theories to pop up!
(P.S: How great were Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert last night?)
reflectionalism 
http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/02/inside-the-situation-room-weve-idd-geronimo/ The picture is really the story here.
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/05/video-stewart-o.php The best of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Monday night.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/02/us-binladen-body-idUSTRE7417FY20110502 I think this is my favorite article out of the bunch. It covers the mysterious Osama burial
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54162.html John Brennan has been saying a little too much, perhaps?
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/20tAVE/www.good.is/post/how-close-was-the-guy-who-tried-to-kill-osama-with-a-sword-last-year/?utm_source=supr I had never heard of this story last year, but it’s pretty funny. Something out of a comic book almost.