Wednesday 13th January

Today's round up of web articles all relate to one man, Mohammad Asadujjuman (pictured above). Mr Asadujjuman, a cab driver from New York found $21,000 in his cab and in a display of honesty which is increasingly rare in this day & age, he tracked down to the owner to return the cash to them.

Let's see how the various media outlets around the World covered this story?

BBC

Headline: Bangladeshi cabbie in NY returns cash left in taxi
Section: BBC News South Asia
Link: Click here

Outline: The BBC article presents a very positive image of Mr Asadujjuman, highlighting that he went out of his way by driving 50 miles to track down the owner of the cash. It mention his religious background by referring him to as a "devout Muslim", this is stated as the reason for him turning down the cash reward from the owner.

Overall the article is a glowing character reference and by mentioning his religious background portrays a positive image of Islam and Muslims.

Article Verdict: Positive

China Daily

Headline: NY cabbie returns $21k in purse to passenger
Section: World
Link: Click here

Outline: The article by China Daily is very comprehensive. Aside from giving the facts about the story there are additional details included about Mr Asadujjuman's financial position i.e. stating that he started driving a cab because his hours at his previous job had recently been cut.

The article states that he is an "observant Muslim" towards the end of the article.

Another positive news story.

Article Verdict: Positive

Sky News

Headline: NY Taxi Driver Returns $21,000 Left In Cab
Section: Strange News
Written by: Emma Rowley
Link: Click here

Outline: Sky ran this story in their 'Strange News' section and featured a 38 second video clip to accompany the article.

Overall the article is similar in tone to the BBC, it mentions Mr Asadujjuman's Bangladeshi background and also his religious background albeit in the very final paragraph.

However credit must be given where its due and this is another positive article about this story.

Article Verdict: Positive

San Francisco Chronicle

Headline: NY cabbie returns $21k in purse to passenger
Written by: Virginia Byrne
Link: Click here

Outline: This article is practically a word for word copy of the article in China Daily probably because it is written by an Associated Press writer.

The article is postive but a small number of comments make for interesting reading.

Article Verdict: Positive

Fox News

Headline: New York City Cab Driver Returns $21G to Passenger
Written by: Associated Press
Section: US
Link: Click here

Outline: This article is written by the Associated Press not Fox News, who have decided to use a limited number of words to cover this story. All in all the article is only 5 paragraphs long, and they're very small paragraphs at that.

The article is postive but you can't help wonder why Fox's coverage wasn't as comprehensive as others who used the Associated Press and why it left out key details which would have highlighted Mr Asadujjuman's good character?

For that reason I'm going to mark this article as negative

Article Verdict: Negative

MSNBC

Headline: Cab driver returns $21,000 to passenger
Written by: Associated Press
Section: US News/Wonderful World
Link: Click here

Outline: Yet again we see the Associate Press' coverage of the story being used by an American news network. One would think that given the news is from America, there would be no shortage of reporters Stateside to go and talk to Mr Asadujjuman?

Unfortunately in this particular article there is no reference to his religious background which, if included, would have a given a big boost to Islam's image in the US.

It's weird that Fox, which is typically Right Wing did choose to mention Mr Asadujjuman's religion yet the typically liberal left leaning MSNBC didn't. This was a bit of a shock for me and for that reason I have marked this negative

Article Verdict: Negative