Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, was assassinated by one of his body guards yesterday. It wasn’t that long ago that we looked at how heavily the media tend to weight domestic stories. That’s particularly troublesome when important news happens abroad. Say a nuclear power already facing civil unrest and a crumbling government has the governor of its most populous province murdered in daylight by a member of a growing extremist subset. Now say that a new Congress is starting its session. It’s natural that American cable shows will give more coverage and resources to the latter, but how much more? Will they even mention the assassination for more than 30 seconds, much less put it in context to show its importance to global affairs? It might all depend on whether Justin Bieber is pictured canoodling with Selena Gomez.
Let’s look at three comprehensive reports, all of them valuable in different ways. The Associated Press begins its report this way:
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