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Take a moment to imagine what that hoax would entail. Think of all the moving pieces Obama would need to have doing his bidding: everyone in the room in the above photograph, the rest of his cabinet, the Pakistani government, the guy who live tweeted the raid as it was taking place and Al Qaeda -- who, by the way, have totally acknowledged that Bin laden is dead. By my count, that theory requires the president to have at least five different superpowers, and twice as many balls. And the media has covered it with a straight face. Nobody is suggesting the theory is true. They're just using it to cut the story of Bin Laden's death. Milk a few more days of traffic and ratings out of it.

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The problem is that people seemed to have taken the "pics or it didn't happen" thing to heart. Obama decided not to release the photographs, and in the days since, it's been almost as if the story didn't happen. Everyone expected Obama's approval ratings to soar, but it barely moved, and has since returned to where it was on April 30. Another poll showed that nearly one in five Americans believe Bin Laden is still alive.

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The L.A. Times used those poll results to revive the argument that Obama should release the photographs to prove the conspiracy theorists wrong. As though the people who have stood by their conspiracy theory in the face of DNA evidence would look at a picture, and say, "Well, looks like we had it all wrong, Mr. President. Apologies all around." The L.A. Times doesn't seem to realize that "pics or it didn't happen" is only meant to tee your sanity up for the death blow when you finally show them photographic evidence, and they yell "Photoshopped!" and you realize nothing matters and your world might be an elaborate prank.



