Recent 9/11 Revelations Indict the Media Further

More “revelations” about intelligence activities prior to 9/11 seem to be coming out every couple of hours. Yesterday, the AP wrote that “exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal report warned the executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building.” MSNBC reported that Bush was “expected to sign detailed plans for a worldwide war against al-Qaida two days before Sept. 11.” Today, the NY Times reports that the “F.B.I. had been aware for several years that Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network were training pilots in the United States and elsewhere around the world.” The Washington Post reports that Bush was briefed in early August on Bin Laden’s determination to strike the US.

Is this stunning news? Hardly. Again, the question: why does it take three-quarters of a year to produce such a flurry of information on, essentially, the fundamental context of 9/11? Shouldn’t we have known all of this by the end of September, at the latest?

Perhaps this will force us to consider how much our media matters to democracy, and how its recent performance has been destroying the very foundation of critical inquiry that this country was founded upon. I’m not gonna hold my breath, though.