We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this brief, yet educational blogpost.
As America knows, President Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Some heard about it on Twitter, others on Facebook and some via their morning newspaper.
Newspapers are powerful tools. They are the first draft of history, they hold those in charge accountable for their actions and they have the potential to shape the way you think, feel and act. As a journalist, it was very interesting to see how different newspapers covered the death of Bin Laden.
Headlines ranged from simply "Dead" to "Rot In Hell!"
This piqued my curiosity because journalists are taught to be completely unbiased when it comes to news reporting. Some don't even register to vote with one political party or another to keep themselves unbiased to the world. So the question is, with something like this, what is appropriate coverage?
You won't find many Americans who are mourning Bin Laden's death, so there aren't really two sides to the story. But as a reporter or an editor, what would your story read like? What would the headline be?
I don't have an answer to this. Personally, I feel that it is crucial to be unbiased while reporting the news, but when it comes to something like Bin Laden's death, I'm not sure if I could write a straightforward "Bin Laden is Dead" story. No matter how neutrally reporters write, everyone has opinions and in instances like this, it would be hard to prevent them from leaking out.
Here are some newspaper headlines from Monday: what do you think?
Labels: history, journalism, news, Obama, Osama Bin Laden
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