When watching the Sunday morning public affairs programs on network television that focused on the execution of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALS, two aspects of the discussions and analyses were very revealing about the nature of “mainstream” television commentary in this country.

The first was the near total absence of African American commentators among the programs four hosts and sixteen commentators. Not a single African American were among those on ABC’s “This Week,” hosted by Christiane Amanpour, NBC’s “Meet the Press,” hosted by David Gregory and CBS’ “The McLaughlin Report” hosted by John McLaughlin, “Fox News Sunday,” hosted by Chris Wallace had its token political analyst, Juan Williams and NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show” had its token African American contributor, Helene Cooper, the White House correspondent for the New York Times. 

Conspicuously absent, as always, from such programs was any representative from either the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) or the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA), an organization whose membership consists of nearly 200 African American newspapers throughout the country. Also absent from any national television commentary around that huge international news event were seasoned, talented, knowledgeable, outstanding journalists such as Hazel Trice-Edney, founder of Trice-Edney Wire Services and columnists George Curry, James Clingman and Earl Caldwell among numerous  others. It appears that commentary on major international events is still the special preserve of White males and a few White women. By the way, CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” which focuses on how news is covered in the press, also didn’t have a single African American commentator on its program that Sunday.

A second very revealing aspect of the coverage was a total absent of commentary about the pertinent fact that Bin Laden was initially a creation of the United States. Reportedly, in the 1980s when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. lured thousands of young Muslims from throughout the world to come to Afghanistan and help drive out the infidel invaders. Osama Bin Laden was among several thousands who responded to that call. They were supplied with all kinds of state-of-the-art military weapons, technology and training that eventually enabled them to drive the Russians out. It was members of that group of young Muslims who later became the charter members of Al-Qaeda. Newsworthiness would demand that this fact be included in any discussion on the execution of Bin Laden because it provides at least one rational argument why the U.S. government was determined not to put him on trail where this connection might have been daily exposed to the watching world. It is very possible that some of the American soldiers killed in Afghanistan may have been victims of military weapons received from and military skills learned from U.S. sources.

Prominent commentators such as Bob Woodward, George Will, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bill Kristol and others on those nationally televised programs obviously did not consider this very important element of the Bin Laden – U.S. saga as being newsworthy.

Journalist/Lecturer A. Peter Bailey, a former associate editor of Ebony, is currently editor of Vital Issues: The Journal of African American Speeches. He can be reached at 202-716-4560.