Oh No He Dit-ehn, Girlfriend!

             Every time I sit at this keyboard, I try to make a conscious effort NOT to pick the story that everyone is buzzing about.  What would be the point really?  If the story is the same and the only thing that differs from commentary to commentary is, well, the commentary, it would be akin to being kept abreast of John Mayer’s Slurpee purchases on Facebook.  “Bainfreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze LOL”.  Additionally, RCGTT being a blog aimed at local and state affairs, I really cannot believe it myself: (sigh) this post is regarding the news of the death of Usama Bin Laden.

            But how?  Well, you tell me.  A quick Google search for local and state news stories (I should have known better) brings me to YNN’s site.  It is not a bad layout, to be honest.  It looks like on a normal day, any number of interesting and provocative news nuggets could be had at the user-friendly click of a touch screen or mouse.  Nevertheless, there it is. The entire first page, six major headlines, all with either UBL’s name, 9-11, or “Al Qaeda”  in the text of their titles, all taking the news and twisting it to fit into a local scope.  “Austin Firefighter Feels Closure in Bin Laden Death”...”Texas senator burned in 9-11 attacks expresses relief”...and the like.

            I do not know what I was really expecting.  My personal feelings regarding the events are conflicted at best, being ex-military but also having a brain, albeit an uncultured one apparently, as I didn’t know burials at sea were a Muslim tradition.  Further research needed on this, I am afraid.  I am also not naive to the sentiment our country has for this sort of news, some of it even being warranted in my opinion. 

            My beef is in the pure lack of options in news articles as of late.  I do not run a newspaper, so I may be a bit biased in my opinion.  However, there simply has to have been something else going on this last week.  I do not understand why if a story is huge--as this one obviously is--everyone on the staff from the Editor in Chief to the food critic has to chime in.  Is that not somewhat a form journalistic cheating?  Well it is at the very least boring to me.  It appears lazy and contrived.  It is embarrassing to see so many columnists stretching the editorial-“wedgie” of a connection between UBL and the auto sales section on G7.