News Analysis

Topic: Mumbai Wife Reports

The Star Tribune : AP sources: before Mumbai attacks, 2 wives of convicted terrorist Headley spoke to authorities.

The Star Tribune is owned by the Star Tribune Media Company LLC. The Star Tribune is a Minneapolis-St. Paul news source.

This newspaper article was written by Pete Yost of the Associated Press and was gathered for the Star Tribune. The sources include the very vague “government officials” and multiple times directly ties facts from the article to The New York Times.

The New York Times: U.S. Had Warnings On Plotter of Mumbai Attacks.

The New York Times is owned by The New York Times Company, founded in 1851. This company also owns The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and ~25 other small newspapers.

This article was written by Jane Perlez, Eric Schmitt, Ginger Thompson, Barclay Walsh. There are a multitude of sources used in this article, including “interviews in Washington, Pakistan, India, and Morocco”, The Pakistani Government, “United States Officials”, ProPublica (an investigative news organization), Mike Hammer—the spokesman for The National Security Council, and an actual interview with the Moroccan wife done previously with The New York Times.

The Australian: Wives of Mumbai plotter David Headley warned US about him

The Australian is owed by News Corporation, also known as NewsCorp, which was founded in 1973.

The sources reported in this article were, once again, “two government officials” and the New York Times news report previously published. The other facts presented were not cited.

Some of the major themes I found in the articles were the depiction of “two government officials” who seemed to have an all knowing knowledge of the subject, making them seem very trustworthy and credible sources even though no names or direct facts were given in support of the information they provided. Also, the key phrases of “despite” “more significantly” and “it is unclear” overlapped between articles. Lastly, in each news source the fact that this was not the first time U.S. officials had heard complaints about Mr. Headley, which spun the articles to point the finger at U.S. intelligence and their overall effectiveness.

The central issue in all three articles revolves around the fault of the United States in thoroughly investigating reports that the future bomber/terrorist Mr. David C. Headley was plotting attacks which eventually were carried out. The investigation revolves around the complains of two of his three wives, one Moroccan and one American, who both reported the possibilities for attacks that went unheard. Mr. Headley led a terrorist attack that killed 163 people. The three articles handle this subject in different ways. The New York Times has, by far, the longest article entitled “U.S. Had Warnings on Plotter of Mumbai Attack” . The article first has an attention-getter opening with the issue at hand, then delves into the history of the issue for the uninformed reader. The reporters include the connections Mr. Headley had with the overlapping worlds of Pakistani intelligence, terrorists, and American drug investigators. There are multiple cases of evidence from vague sources like ‘The United States’ and ‘Federal officials’ and also more traceable evidence, like quotes. The New York Times was the only news source to point out the overlapping connections Mr. Headley had with multiple groups. The level of detail provided by The New York Times is reflective of its power and ability to have reporters find the credible sources and include as much information as possible. The other smaller news companies, like The Australian and The Star Tribune in fact include The New York Times as a source of information in their reports, implying that the Times is the source of the most reliable news. The Star Tribune seems to have very general information that isn’t as well developed as The Times. The Australian article includes even less about the actual history and facts of the case and goes off on a tangent of other terrorist attacks. When examined closely, these differences emphasize the large scale power and dominance The New York Times has over the other news reports, even ones overseas in Australia. The majority of the news stems down from one ‘credible’ source, whose credibility cannot be proven or verified yet is accepted still.