The Media Ignored Osama

Chris Weinkopf's article in the current issue of The American Enterprise Online takes an interesting look at the mainstream media's lack of coverage of the video Osama bin Laden released just days before the U.S. presidential election. He writes:

Fake National Guard documents. Missing explosives. The draft. During the 2004 campaign, no story that made the President look bad was too petty, too contrived, or too false to command the attention of the establishment media.

Yet there was a key, last-minute development that reflected none too kindly on John Kerry. And it aroused almost no press attention whatsoever.

In the video he released just before the election, Osama bin Laden was rather clear about which candidate he wanted to lead the free world. It sure wasn't George W. Bush, whom he savaged personally and at great length. According to some experts, OBL even threatened red states with attacks should they back the President.

But the establishment media that swooned over the warnings of Michael Moore, and celebrated Bruce Springsteen's endorsement of Kerry, did its utmost to ignore these warnings and deny this endorsement by the world's premier terrorist.