Bin Laden and the Politics of Journalism

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"One role of the journalist is to debunk crazy conspiracy theories, but another, more difficult role is to expose real and harmful conspiracies, of which there have been many." So states this interesting editorial that uses two writers' and the U.S. government's conflicting accounts of Osama bin Laden's demise and some journalists' reactions to the controversy (that never really rose to the level of controversy in the public mind) to illustrate the ebbs and flows of journalistic inclination. "During the ’60s and ’70s," it continues, "growing journalistic skepticism of the American adventure in Southeast Asia fueled a wider culture of dissent and investigation, and produced an unprecedented golden age of investigative journalism. Once the cold war ended, however, the public mood changed, and journalism resumed its previously supine position on the divan of American triumphalism and self-regard." The war in Iraq and the coincident government spin brought investigative journalism back, for a time. "This spring, Politico conducted a poll that found that 65 percent of White House correspondents believe [President] Obama to be the 'least press-friendly president they’ve ever seen' ... ": https://nplusonemag.com/issue-23/the-intellectual-situation/evil-but-stupid/
   Seymour Hersh's article, The Killing of Osama bin Laden, in the London Review of Books: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden