The “Announcement” Whispered Round the World

My sister-in-law and I were watching the feud between Star Jones and Nene Leakes on the Celebrity Apprentice when news of a much bigger, more long-standing feud broke via ticker-tape. A scrolling message began flashing along the bottom of the screen, announcing that President Obama would be addressing the nation at 10:30.

And I bet everyone who saw the ticker tape did exactly what I did.

Hit up the real leading source of info: Google.

And we didn’t go away disappointed.

A quick internet-search revealed an “announcement” from the White House indicating that President Obama would be delivering a statement that was “important to our national security”.

And Google also returned the genuine voice of news in it all: Twitter feeds hash-tagging their brains out that #Osama #Bin #Laden #had #been #captured or #killed.

Next, yes that’s right–NEXT–the New York Times and CNN began chiming in that Bin Laden had indeed been reported killed.

Our world is changing.

Perhaps Americans no longer need to be afraid of terrorism coordinated at the hands of Osama bin Laden. But I get the impression that the threat to the Times and CNN, and all the legitimate historical news sources of the last century, is escalating to level orange.

News has been turned on its head. And so have White House press releases.

Headlines are being delivered by the collective voice of people around the internet. People are literally walking up to other residents of their towns letting them know about the rumors stirring online about bin Laden (No doubt these will be one of those “Where were you when the announcement was made?” kind of stories).

This makes me wonder if perhaps the founding fathers are smiling down on us, pleased at this turn of events–perhaps the highest expression of freedom of the press.

And perhaps a sidenote in all of this is that if President Obama wants to have one of those traditional, exclusive JFK, FDR-style world-renowned press meetings, I guess he can’t wait for possible “president elect” Donald Trump’s show to end to take the podium. He’s gotta go ahead and interrupt the Donald before those 140 characters light up the sky. =)

On a more serious note, join me in being reflective about a Christian response to this announcement and praying that those who verbalize arrogant or vengeful displays of celebration over bin Laden’s death will not stir further animosity between our country and those who desire to harm us. This would be a great time to band together in peace.

[[Related link to my previous article about Christian Response to the Mosque at Ground Zero.]]
[[How the speech got leaked. It REALLY was Twitter.]]