Framing 911 by Bill Whitehouse

Author:Bill Whitehouse [Whitehouse, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bilquees Press
Published: 2010-11-19T08:00:00+00:00

A Lesson in Skepticism

Volume 12, No. 4, 2006 of the magazine Skeptic displays the following words in large letters in relation to its cover story for that issue: ‘9/11 – Was There a Conspiracy?’ Now, if I were skeptically inclined, which – to some degree – I am, I would wonder about the way in which the title for the cover story serves to frame subsequent inquiry.

For instance, what if the cover story headline was: ‘What Really Happened on 9/11?’ This latter title uses the same number of words as the Skeptic title did, and, as well, it asks a question like the Skeptic cover title did and, yet, the second question frames the issue in an entirely different way.

Rather, than starting off with the sort of debate that takes one away from the evidence concerning 9/11 as the aforementioned Skeptic headline does – since the discussion is all about whether or not a certain kind of conspiracy can be proven instead of being about the sort of evidential considerations which precede all such discussions -- my suggested headline invites the reader to work toward the evidence … toward that evidential point prior to the formation of any judgments concerning who is responsible for 9/11 or why they did what they did. So, without even opening the magazine to see what is inside, I have some questions about the nature of the motivations of the people who have put that particular issue of the Skeptic magazine together.

One of those questions I have in the foregoing regard is this: How interested are the editors of Skeptic magazine in the truth concerning 9/11 rather than straw dog issues concerning competing conspiracy theories with respect to the events of 9/11? After all, everyone knows that the official, government, conspiracy theory for 9/11 is that: under the direction of ‘Usama bin Laden, and with the guidance of Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, 19 Arabs conspired together to hijack four commercial airliners and crash them into: the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania (this part of the conspiracy was supposedly foiled), so since the question about a conspiracy has allegedly already been answered in relation to 9/11, why ask the question on the cover of their magazine?

Well, one possible reason for framing things in the foregoing way is this permits one to focus on specific theories of conspiracy and, then, go on to point out possible shortcomings with such theories and, then Q.E.D., one can conclude that it is a complete myth to suppose that anything other than the official government theory concerning 9/11 is true. Oddly enough, however, one never sees Skeptic magazine Popular Mechanics, or Scientific American questioning the official government conspiracy theory… only the competitors are critically examined and, therefore, by process of elimination, we are left with the “champ” – the official government conspiracy theory for 9/11.

The official government conspiracy theory is being propagated as the default position. It is presumed to be true rather than demonstrated to be true.

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