A Message from the CEO on Remembering Terror, the Free Press, and the OSIRIS Agenda
It is customary for Western publications to cover anniversaries of tragedies. Often such coverage is just another method of generating money-making content. Daniel Boorstin wrote about this media phenomenon in his book The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America: while the tragedy is a news-worthy event, the anniversary of the tragedy often (though not always) functions as a "pseudo-event" that is worthy of additional "coverage."
Polls, reactions, sentiments, trending topics -- all these represent additional "content" for modern news media to "cover." Boorstin explains that this was how journalism had transitioned from a "news-gathering" service to a "news-making" industry -- as telecommunications technology and methods became more sophisticated throughout the last century, so had the demand for news. Thus, media outlets contrived ingenious methods of supplying this increased demand, regardless of whether spontaneous news-worthy events were actually occurring.
On this date, twenty years ago, the world (and not just the United States) had experienced a direct attack. After all, half of the hijacked aircraft had targetted the World Trade Center. The modern world was the target (which also included the US). News media around the world benefited from the increased ratings, newspaper sales, and website traffic, because at the time we all simply wanted to know what had happened, what was going on, and would it ever happen again...
We at OSIRS are committed to providing long-lasting positive changes for the world to experience enhanced global security, expanded civil society, and increased individual sovereignty. This ambitious mission does not always fall within convenient timelines and deadlines. Our commitment to you is to provide quality research and insight to all of the world's major security crises and issues. This commitment will become fulfilled over the course of time.
Many brave warfighters, intelligence assets, and other support personnel have lost their lives over the past 20 years to provide for a more secure and free global society. It is beyond what I perceive as realistic to present before you here a concise and complete run-down of the nation's and the world's security situation two decades following 9/11.
I wish I could be more optimistic and positive on this occasion. But, agents of the free press have elected to use their civil freedom to publish what they want, at the expense of what is true, in order to achieve political, personal, or ideological objectives. As I wrote in the conclusion of my Master's Thesis on the infiltration of Chinese Communist Party propaganda in the US mainstream news media, "With a free press like this, who needs state-run media?"
The world needs valiant, independent information agencies to ask bold questions and, with integrity, set out to find answers or, more realistically, more questions to ask instead of answers to give. As Christ once said, blessed are the peace-makers. I believe that peace can be found through intelligence and information. The more of us who have access to information to what is going on out there in the world, the safer this world has a chance of becoming.
Over the course of time, OSIRIS will be publishing information concerning 9/11 and the greater context of the global security situation surrounding it. This endeavor, however, will be one of great care and may not necessarily fall within neat timelines or convenient anniversaries. Evil individuals do not abide by such temporal rules, so I ask, "why should we?" Let us strive together to resist evil and tyranny wherever it may persist.
The words and opinions of this article are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of OSIRIS editorial staff or other affiliated groups or individuals.