Differing Views of Newspapers on the Same Event

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Many news sources from around the world have opposing views on the same event. This was evident in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and two news sources covering the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which resulted from a U.S. airstrike. Zarqawi is a suspected terrorist and is held responsible for hundreds of mass murders, kidnappings, and beheadings. A New York Times article, “U.S. Strike Hits Insurgent at Safehouse” by John F. Burns, and an Arab News article, “Another False Promise of ‘Mission Accomplished’” by Robert Fisk of The Independent and is an English author, talk about Zarqawi’s death in two different ways. To find out which one should be believed, one should take into consideration the tone, the angle, and the sources and quotes given in each article.
The tone of the articles is an important factor on which one to believe. Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the topic he/she are writing about. Burns sounds informational and puts no visible emotion into his article. He writes no underlying information, just facts in his article. If Burns puts emotional stories into the article, it could not hold all the information it has; otherwise, it would be too long to be ideal and would not sound like an article from the U.S. Burns wrote, “Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike on an isolated safe house north of Baghdad at 6:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday, top American and Iraqi officials said today. Islamic militant Web sites linked to Al-Qaeda quickly confirmed the death, saying Mr. Zarqawi had been rewarded with "martyrdom" for his role in the war here” (Burns). This quote proves that he is just being informational. On the other hand, Robert Fisk, who originally wrote th...

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...rab News. Furthermore, this article has nothing to back up its facts. The Arab News decided to not quote or cite anyone because it could be used against their possible persuasion tactics.
As seen in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the New York Times article U.S. Strike Hits Insurgent at Safehouse by John F. Burns, and Another False Promise of “Mission Accomplished” by Robert Fisk from the Arab News, many news sources will contradict each other and will have information to back themselves up. By comparing the tone, the angle, and the amount of sources, the truth about that certain topic will reveal itself.

Works Cited
Burns, John F. "U.S. Strike Hits Insurgent at Safehouse." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 9 June 2006. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Fisk, Robert. "Another False Promise of 'Mission Accomplished'" Arabnews.com. Arab News, 10 June 2006. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.

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