Article 1
Headline: US Gunman faced Afghan Posting
Section: News - Americas and also front page major news story
URL: Link
Outline: This news story received extensive coverage across most of the British electronic media.
The first of today's featired stories about fatal shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas is taken from the BBC site.
The 2nd paragraph actually opens with the name of the gunman Major Nidal Malik Hasan, followed by his age and then by his religious background, he is described as "...a US-born Muslim..."
This is interesting because, unfortunately, a shooting of this nature i.e. no apparent motive with victims gunned down at random is tragically common across the United States and includes many high profile instances most notably the Columbine Massacre. The religious or ethnic background of the attackers in such cases is rarely highlighted. Therefore one questions the motive behind highlighting Maj Hasan's religious background unless of course it's to plant a seed in the mind of the reader?
In paragraph 5 the commander of the Fort Hood base is quoted as telling a US news network that "...eyewitnesses..." reported Maj Hasan shouting "...Allahu Akbar!..." which is described as an "...Arabic phrase...before opening fire..."
Towards the end of the article, 21st paragraph to be precise, there is reference to a message posted on the Washington Post website by the family of Maj Hassan which sends a message of condolence to the victims families.
However subsequent paragraphs also reveal some important details which help to shed some light on possible motives e.g. the 23rd paragraph states the cousin of Maj Hasan as saying that "...Major Hasan has been battling racial harassment because of his Middle Eastern ethnicity...". The previous paragraph states that Maj Hasan described an imminent deployment oversease as "...his worst nightmare..."
These 2 details are significant considering the tragedy that unfolded at Fort Hood. It highlights that Maj Hasan faced racial discrimination in an establishment as large as the US Army and despite him holding the grade of a Major. It also highlights that Maj Hasan could easily have been described as a Conscientious Objector i.e. opposing deployment to a conflict zone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
The 24th paragraph mentions that CCTV footage from early on in the day showed Maj Hasan wearing "...religious attire..." There are 2 problems with this, firstly one needs to question why the item of clothing is significant? The answer is that is isn't. Secondly the clothing referred to as religious is actually a cultural dress traditionally worn by people from the Middle East irrespective of their religious background i.e. one could come across a Christian, Jewish or Muslim person from the Middle East wearing the same attire or indeed someone from another part of the World may choose to wear it based on personal taste.
This is a further attempt to plant more seeds into the minds of readers which along with earlier references to Maj Hasan's Muslim faith, the arabic phrase and allegedly "religious" attire should leave the reader in no doubt as to the motivation behind this tragedy.
Towards the end of the article there's 1 paragraph wihch features a comment from a soldier at Fort Hood with regards to the pressure likely to be placed on Muslim Soldiers in the US Army "...It kind of puts a negative light on them and makes people distrust them because everybody is going to look at them [and think]: 'Well, you're probably going to pull something like this...and it's a sad fact that that will happen..."
The penultimate paragraph refers to a New York Times report according to which the FBI are investigating a link between web postings by a man sharing Major Hasan's name that backs suicide bombings but it states that there is no clear link between the 2. If that is the case then surely it must be premature to include this bit of information in the story, that is unless the intention is to make readers think that there is a link......specualtive journalism at its best!
Considering that this article is from the day of the shooting the BBC published a lot of information that was purely speculative in nature and assigned a motive to the actions of Major Hassan even before the truth is known. In addition to this many important bits of information like the alleged racial discrimination and Major Hasan's objections to deployment are not given the attention they deserve.
This is not a balanced article and prematurely assigns this tragic shooting a religious motive, albeit subliminally, whilst having read the details it could well be that there were psychological problems involved. Therefore it's no suprise that this article from the BBC is given a negative rating.
Channel 4 News Online
Article 1
Headline: Army major held for US gun attack
Section: World - Americas
URL: Link
Outline: This article is in stark contrast to the BBC article above. It states the gunman's name in the 2nd paragraph but doesn't mention his ethnic or religious background.
The next few paragraphs focus more on the events of the day and feature comments from the base commander.
The 14th paragraph (out of 16 in total) mentions the cousin of Major Hasan who is quoted as saying that Major Hasan was a "...US-born Muslim who had joined the military from High School...". This is the first and only reference to Major Hasan's religious background but also mentions his profession as a pshychiatrist in the US Army.
It also repeats the concerns stated in the BBC article about Major Hasan's deployment abroad.
The article ends with some facts about Fort Hood as a military base.
Unlike the BBC News article there are no loaded messages in this article nor are there any premature assumptions planted into the readers minds about what the possible motives could have been behind Major Hasan's actions.
This is a well balanced article and presents it from an objective viewpoint thus it's given a neutral rating.
Article Verdict: Neutral
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