Bhutto gets whacked
I’ve been in the office all day today working on a website and listening to radio 4. In the early afternoon the news bulletin had a report at the end about a terrorist bomb in Pakistan. There weren’t many details, and the bulletin ended. Then in the next bulletin there were suddenly reports and rumours that Benazir Bhutto had been hurt in the explosion, and suddenly the wheels of the international media tumbled into motion in front of my ears. When the assassination was confirmed and suddenly a massive news story was breaking. It was breathtaking how quickly commentators were lined up, the obituary dusted off and political analysts rolled out to comment. And most impressive of all, how quickly the main news websites change to report the story in such incredible depth.
It reminds me of watching the story of the twin towers plane crashes unfold. I was in Vietnam at the time and the only channel in English on the TV was CNBC (a rolling financial news channel). To begin with the presenters were gamely trying to stick to their channel’s editorial line and talk about how the news could affect the financial markets. Then all of a sudden the tone changed and bosh - it was all ‘Attack On America’. One thing that does stick in my mind is some twonk being interviewed and assuring viewers that the best way to fight back was to ‘go out and keep buying those big ticket items’. Yeh. Go and buy a fridge. That’ll fix those pesky terrormerists.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
What a tragedy and very sad news indeed. She will be a great heroine of our generation. It brings back all those memories of the troubles in Northern Ireland. We never learn from history do we? I do hope Pakistan finds peace before too long.