Opinion Forum

Charlie Sheen Is a “9/11 Truther”

March 10th, 2011

I’ve been trying to avoid the Charlie Sheen issue, but I’m too bothered by the media’s turpitude to keep silent. Does anyone writing for a mainstream news agency realize that in 2006 Charlie Sheen appeared on the popular Jimmy Kimmel Live show to accuse President Bush and the U.S. government of carrying out and covering up the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in 2001? You wouldn’t know it from reading recent reports or from watching Dateline NBC’s hour-long show on Sheen’s emotional decline.

Since 2006, Sheen has recorded videos and written letters clarifying his position on this issue, even drafting a letter to Obama in 2009 asking for an investigation into the “Bush cover up.” Sheen has claimed that the government used the 9/11 attacks “as the pretext for the systematic dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights;” that the administration of former president George W. Bush was behind the attacks, which they were then able to use to justify an invasion of Iraq; and that Osama Bin Laden was working with the CIA up until 9/11.

Sheen, in short, joined the maniacal “9/11 Truther” movement, explaining in his letter to president Obama that “We cannot allow governments to continue to advance their political agendas by exploiting forged pretexts.”

Needless to say, this story received very little attention in the United States media. It appeared nowhere near the front pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal, and where it did appear, it was buried. One hopes this is for the very good reason that it doesn’t matter what Hollywood wackos say about anything, especially politics. More likely, its absence from the front pages reflects the media not wanting to draw attention to a view point that they see as just slightly off the mark, a wee bit too extreme in its invocation of “conspiracy” to be taken seriously, but nevertheless on the right track.

Liberals, in fact, have great sympathy for any narrative in which the 9/11 attacks are seen as, in some grand way, America’s fault, and as the gateway to the militarily aggressive, anti-terror policies of the Bush administration. Remember, the media didn’t report when “9/11 Truther” Van Jones was appointed to the powerful government post of “Green Jobs Czar” by Obama. For the mainstream media, this just wasn’t something they thought the United States public would want to know about a government official. It was left to “right-wing wacko” Glen Beck to scoop the media on the Van Jones story, after which the Czar was forced to resign. If not for Beck, Jones would today be handing out carbon emission waivers to companies he’d been able to shake down.

So the media’s faux fascination with the craziness of Charlie Sheen is contrived. There was quite a bit of evidence that Charlie Sheen was a madman before his recent, drug-induced mental breakdown. But the media was uninterested when the madness included the vocalization of a viewpoint that could only damage a cause they deem vital — the continuing demonization of George W. Bush.

Even so, last week, when Dateline NBC visited with Sheen for a whole week, when they supposedly gave tens of millions of viewers the inside scoop on all that is Charlie Sheen, when they scrupulously waded through his life and career and slow descent into madness, nowhere did Sheen’s involvement with the “Truthers” appear. For the producers of Dateline, the promotion of the belief that America attacked itself on 9/11 just doesn’t tell you anything that important about a person’s character.

(This article was also posted at Mr. Forman’s Planet.)

Articles written by Seth Forman
Tags: 9/11, Bush Administration, Charlie Sheen, conspiracy, cover-up, truther
Categories: Media, News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

4 Responses to “Charlie Sheen Is a “9/11 Truther””

Tom Carter | March 11th, 2011 at 12:19 pm

Thanks, Seth. I wasn’t aware that Charlie the Kook was also a “truther.” But then, it makes sense, considering who he is and the weirdo world he lives in.

Your analysis of why the media haven’t made much of this is right on target.

Bob | March 12th, 2011 at 10:00 am

Great information. Watching Sheen mentally degenerate is sad but the fact that our current “leadership” appointed someone just a crazy to a major government post and had to be called to task for it by Glen Beck is much sadder and truly frightening. It raises the question in my mind of whether there is really much difference between state of Sheen’s mind and that of our president.

Seth Forman | March 30th, 2011 at 6:41 am

My point is, that the media is so unscrupulous that we just don’t have the information we need to make good decisions.

Tom Carter | March 31st, 2011 at 5:21 am

Seth, you’re exactly right about the media. Not only are they not very well-informed on many issues, they filter things through their own ideological biases (of whichever kind). Just look at the difference between the tone and volume of media coverage of Abu Ghraib when Bush was president and now the “kill team” mess while Obama is in office. Even though at this point it looks like the latest controversy is worse, it isn’t being treated that way.