Twitter and Osama bin Laden's Death

After a brief announcement that President Obama was going to give a White House address, with only 40 minutes notice, I immediately went to Twitter with the search terms "white house address" to see what the digital noosphere already knew or thought it knew. Even before the President's scheduled time had passed (it wasn't until an hour later that the president came to the podium in the East Room, presumably finishing up phone calls to former presidents and our allies in the region about what he could say), I already knew what was happening: Osama bin Laden dead, by US operation, in Islamabad, Pakistan, with a bullet, and we were in possession of his body. Just like the boardgame Clue.

It was interesting to see how the details changed within a span of twenty minutes. We knew it was big news because all military forces were upgraded to security threat bravo. Then: Osama Dead! From being killed a week ago by Predator drone and waiting on DNA testing in Waziristan, to mansion in Islamabad by sniper fire. Of course, when Obama finally spoke to us an hour later than planned, it was a special ops force raiding a compound in Abbottabad, attempting to apprehend bin Laden, and killing him in the ensuing firefight. It was also interesting to see how accurate the Twitter leaks were to the official announcement by the president himself. Abbottabad is only 35 miles away from the Pakistani capital, like Pomona to downtown Los Angeles. Sniper fire to assault weapon fire. That the operation happened today, instead of a week ago. I wonder if the White House team was pushing some vague leaks so the president could give us the real details in his address and break the real news. Probably not. More likely the reporters pumping their sources and going a bit further in connecting whatever dots than what the sources actually told them. Still, I was surprised to hear Obama say he authorized the operation today, and then it was carried out immediately.

This is now the news world we live in. For news as it happens, it's no longer a helicopter following a car chase. It's a three word search on Twitter.