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NY Times: Karachi After Bhutto

Image © Tyler Hicks/New York Times-All Rights Reserved
The New York Times brings us this slideshow of Karachi street scenes from one of my favorite photojournalists, Tyler Hicks. The title, Karachi After Bhutto is self-explanatory, and portends an major political upheaval in this critically important country.

It's been reconfirmed this morning that our mass media hasn't lost its timidity in reporting on the current political theater in Pakistan.

Here's an article in the NY Times reporting on yesterday's meeting of journalists with Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, who rejected any suggestion that he or any members of the Pakistani military or intelligence agencies played a role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

This sets the tone of the article:

" In a televised question and answer session that lasted more than 90 minutes, Mr. Musharraf appeared relaxed and confident, telling journalists that they often got their facts wrong and that they did not understand the situation in Pakistan."

On the same event, here's the final paragraph from an article from the British newspaper, The Independent :

"Instead one was left wondering why Mr Musharraf appeared so desperate to explain himself to the world? Does he genuinely believe he is badly misunderstood? A clue, perhaps, came in his final exhortation to the media – words that were cut from the television broadcast. "Please," he said. "I am not a fraud, I am not a liar."

I know from where I'll continue to get my international news, and you can tell it's not from the New York Times.

For some levity: I've chosen the above photograph because of the white cat meandering among the stains of betel juice and the other detritus. Isn't it amazing that it manages to remain spotless?

Karachi After Bhutto