Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Lost Art of the Follow-Up Question (Part 1)


My new weekly series of quick suggestions for followup questions for the journalists who seem to have forgotten how to ask them since Jan 2009.

Today when asked about the release of the Osama bin Laden “death” photos, President Obama and White House officials finally (after a great deal of rather characteristic indecisiveness) shot those plans down citing a weariness in giving an additional propaganda tool that could put our deployed servicemen and women in further danger and a reluctance to insult “Muslim sensibilities”. 

Example Follow up question:

Why the sudden consternation over angering Muslims and endangering deployed service men and women? Over the past two and a half years, you've already leaked photos of alleged “Al-Qaeda detainee abuses” under the Bush administration, secret legal memos defending the legality of “enhanced interrogation techniques” (also conveniently damaging the prior administration) and you even managed to leak the names of those lawyers and judges who wrote said memos. These "enhanced interrogation" techniques were key in tracking down OBL as Leon Pennetta now admits. 

In short: If Seal Team Six would have put underwear on bin Laden's head, would the photo have been released?  

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