Bhutto assassination: Why is it big news?

Major newspapers around the world and in Montreal gave huge play to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Montreal front pages - Dec. 28, 2007

Which of these reasons best describes the near-unanimous decision to put this on front pages?

  1. The news media is starting to seriously pay attention to international news, giving it the importance it deserves.
  2. The news media hasn’t changed. The assassination of a top political figure is an unusual and important story.
  3. The news media is desperate for a real news story in the otherwise dead year-in-review banked-feature time around Christmas and New Years.
  4. She’s hot.

4 thoughts on “Bhutto assassination: Why is it big news?

  1. Warren Wilansky

    In addition to everything you mentioned above, I think there is a real fear of Pakistan’s instability leading to a dire situation there. If things go badly (i.e. Civil War / a Fundamentalist takeover) you then have a real possibility of a very tenuous situation from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Oh, and they have Nukes.

    Reply

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