LISNews has a very interesting story (http://lisnews.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/23/1349211&from=rss) about Osama bin Laden’s quote (or misquote) from a book causing its sales to skyrocket in the US and other western countries.

While it is amusing to image that Oprah’s Book Club must compete with Bin Laden’s Book Club, it does raise some serious questions.

1. A news media (both western and arab) that passes over stories such as the alleged rape of a 21-year-old woman by 4 US marines in the Philippines, dwells on, and even embellishes the latest “Bin Laden Tapes” as though they are rap albums and he’s the latest “American Idol.”

2. Why isn’t credibility a factor in midst of this brouhaha? Oprah was held accountable for less-than-factual book club recommendation, yet very few have seriously questioned whether any of these magically and incredibly easily available Bin Laden tapes are real. In an age when even a less than competant movie maker could conceivably created a video tape of anybody doing anything, how much easier would it be to create an (translated) audio tape?

3. If Al-Jazeerah has access to Bin Laden on such a regular basis, why can’t the US army and “intelligence,” with all of their cutting-edge spying technology that they use on their own citizens, find him?

4. If Bin Laden writes his own book, will American libraries carry it? Will we be allowed to have it on our shelves?

5. If his book becomes a bestseller, will Oprah read it? Will it be her next book club book?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 7:24 am and is filed under Afterthought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.