Interesting. Fox News saying "Usama bin Laden" on their website. I wonder

[Pryderi]

why they're doing that. Have they always referred to him as Usama and not Osama?

[arcane1]

1. Typo prevention :)

[highplainsdem]

5. That's what Keith Olbermann was speculating on Twitter.

[highplainsdem]

15. Keith's tweet about this:

KeithOlbermann Keith Olbermann
Note Fox News has switched to "Usama Bin Laden" presumably so they don't get caught calling him "Obama Bin Laden" for a 2nd time tonight
48 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. There are two accepted spellings

OBL and UBL

[ChazII]

11. Thank you for this information.

I had not heard of the UBL before.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. The Brits use it mostly

Since I read both Presses regularly... I am used to it!

:-)

[EFerrari]

3. It's their way of making him sound as foreign as possible

because their audience is full of bigots and xenophobes.

[Geostudent]

4. The spelling of the FBI and CIA

It is how the FBI and CIA spell it. They consider everything else an aliases.

[ingac70]

6. Probably so they don't accidentally put Obama instead. n/t

[Bucky]

7. Yes, they've always tried to use U instead of O. Sometimes they slip.

I think it has something to do with their adamant commitment to living in a separate reality from the rest of us.

[freshwest]

8. IDK. They certainly had a lot of 'slips' calling Barack 'Osama.' So did all the GOP candidates.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. It can be spelled either way. Arabic transliterations tend to be

rather variable. Doesn't really mean anything.

[Ron Green]

10. Yep. It's like when the fundie billboards read, "Believe ON the Lord Jesus Christ."

It's a kind of code to their audience.

[Nye Bevan]

12. It's like a Gaddafi / Quadafi / Khadhafy thing. I wish Middle Eastern scumbags could settle on one

spelling for their names.

[former9thward]

21. Nice bit of ignorance about Arabic.

Any Arabic name can have multiple spellings in English. They are all correct. It is called transliteration.

[leftstreet]

13. But did they put a D after his name?

:-)

[WinkyDink]

14. Maybe if they type the "U" they won't follow it with a "b".

[lynne]

16. FBI spells it "Usama" based on their website -

- http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden

[MiniMe]

17. Osama or Usama, it is a translation from Arabic

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

18. they did immediately after 9/11

i remember Michael Moore joking at the time that FOX "puts the USA in Usama"
but i haven't seen it used in a while

[David__77]

20. I think a US gov't agency did that, so they decided to.

They have always used that spelling. It is not incorrect, but is unique to them as a news agency.

[ecstatic]

22. So their sheeple will think it's someone else?

:shrug:

[Pryderi]

23. I thought it might have to do with right-wing messaging.