Image from Al Jazeera’s article, Pakistan judges to be reinstated

This Image is from CNN’s article, Fired Judges Getting Jobs Back

I choose two articles regarding the reinstatement of Pakistan’s judges who were removed from power by President Pervez Musharraf last year. The above image is from CNN’s coverage of the story and the below image is from the coverage of the story by Al Jazeera, a controversial middle eastern news agency.

The titles themselves paint in obvious bias when the viewer decides the read the article. The CNN’s title, Fired Judges Getting Jobs Back, sounds cold and impartial towards the judges. FIRED, a loaded word brings the immediate thoughts to my mind of Why were they fired? Did they deserve? If someone is fired, especially someone in the political lime light, it is usually for good reason. So should they be getting their job back? The CNN article goes on to clearly explain the events that the man, Nawaz Shariff (who is pictured in the above pictures), and what his actions are going to be. Shariff is the Pakistan former Prime Minister and the leader of the country’s new coalition.

The Al Jazeera article title, Pakistan Judges to be Reinstated, is much more neutral in its projecting opinion.  This is ironic because this article is much more heated in its discussion and presentation of the information. The title makes you feel neutral towards the news but as you read on you begin to feel for the judges and are angered by the regime that removed them from power.  The article discusses how there the supreme court was preparing to rule on the legality of Pervez Musharraf’s October election by the previous parliament to a new five-year presidential term.  Musharraf had the judges arrested for “corruption and conspiring against him and political plans.”

It is very hard for me to tell which new reporting organization did a better job of reporting the facts of this story.  I think CNN did a better job of writing a non-emotional news report.  The Al Jazeera article does make you feel a certain way about the political stances of the people involved but if those are the true facts of what is happening within this story than they did a very good job of reporting this.  Its very hard to conclude which article is more truthful and unbaised.

The Al Jazeera article does the best job of painting Pervez Musharraf as the evil other.  Even in the image that represents the article, the underdogs that are shown who are rising up against Musharraf are shown as calm friendly, well-dressed gentlemen.  They are not intimidating and they seem to be very intelligent.  After reading the article you have respect for these men and you want them to “win” the fight that they are undertaking. The CNN article’s image makes the same man appear to be in a heated political argument.  I believe this image goes more in line with the truth of the story. I believe he must do a lot of arguing and debating before this matter is going to be resolved.