Response to The New York Post

e Assassination of Benazir Bhutto:

            Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan was assassinated on December 27, 2007. There was a lot of speculation regarding the terrorists who killed Bhutto and their group affiliation. Initially, Bhutto was blamed by the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.  He claimed that Bhutto unnecessarily stood outside her car, and therefore she was responsible for her own death.

            A couple of weeks later, it was revealed that messengers of the government killed Bhutto. Musharaff blamed Islamic extremists for the attack. A few days following this revelation, it was reported that that the CIA blamed al Qaeda as well as allies of a Pakistani tribal leader.  This attack questioned the stability of Musharaff’s government. On January 20, 2008, a young Pakistani admitted to his participation in killing Bhutto under the authority of al Qaeda and Taliban. Additionally, he revealed that he was one of five terrorists involved in Bhutto’s assassination. The terrorists were given a wide array of explosives and were also responsible for many other attacks.

            Bhutto’s assassination put Pakistan into an even more precarious position and has caused Pakistan to fall into a worse political situation. The results of Bhutto’s death included chaos and riots throughout the streets. The Bhutto regime had now completely fallen.

1.     The audience of The New York Post seems to attract American, Blue-Collar citizens.  The lack of extensiveness following the assassination proves that there wasn’t such a strong interest in Bhutto from the local New York community. The Post’s audience is generally more concerned with local news, while less concerned with international affairs.  The syntax in the Post could very well be found in a magazine. The title for the January 20^th article about Bhutto is titled “Bhutto Slay Bust.” The word “bust” takes away from the credibility of the article and proves that the audience is more heavily geared towards Blue- Collar society.

2.     In the first article, Bhutto is portrayed as the villain.  The Post brings quotes such as “responsibility is hers” and “Bhutto was warned” to prove that she was at fault. The rest of the articles appear to be minimally more factual. This could have been because more information was unleashed after the first terrorist was interrogated. It is interesting to see that there are even “villains” in the case of natural disasters.  For example, after Hurricane Katrina hit, the mayor of New Orleans was blamed for his lack of effort to help the community. The Post needs a villain in most stories in order to make the news more captivating and to show its viewpoint on the subject at hand.

3.     Musharaff is considered to be the hero. Although it is assumed that he organized the assassination, he is portrayed in a positive light in the article. He seems to be quite arrogant and therefore felt that he had the right to organize an attack such as this one. He rules a corrupt country as a corrupt leader. His assurance when he says he “absolutely believed it was possible that Bhutto died  of a gunshot wound,” shows his confidence in his decision.