While I was over in New York this Easter it was reported that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I was in a bar in Williamsburg when it happened, everyone seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly even though no TV was on. Such is the way of news in these modern times. Later I was asked why I hadn’t rushed down to Ground Zero to witness the ensuing celebrations, the end of the long search for the perpetrator of the atrocity that happened almost ten years ago. The answer was simple, his death didn’t really mark anything any more, in fact his death rather than capture made things arguably less clear.
Spin forward to today, and the whole of England, if not the world, is heading towards a real sea change. Arguably one of the people who really put the ‘terror’ in the ‘war on terror’ was facing his own trial of sorts. Rupert Murdoch and his son, answered questions from British MPs regarding his newspaper’s apparent repeated and callous disregard for the law in the pursuit of a story. The owner of the biggest propaganda machine in the US if not the world, Fox News, sitting front and center as the story himself. This may not seem like much, but the number of influential people this looks to be impacting is fascinating and disturbing. It shows that with our modern, connected, social media rich communication there is no way for a story to be kept under wraps, under the control of media cartels who only seem to answer to their bottom line not the public’s best interest.
So as I got ready for my usual run along the Thames Embankment this evening, I thought maybe I should avoid Parliament. Stay away from the melee. Then I realised that this was a moment in history that I did not want to miss. One of those times you remember always and tell your grandchildren about. As I ran through the crowds gathered around the streets, and the media tents brightly lit on the lawn, I could feel the sense of excitement and anticipation. A buzz as people saw the moment happening, when a brighter future emerged.