Monday, January 07, 2008

File under "how fucking insensitive are these people?"

Yesterday, my local paper had the usual Parade Magazine supplement. However, someone obviously wasn't paying much attention to world events. The supplement featured an interview with Benazir Bhutto, with a headline asking whether she's the key to defeating terror, complete with a subhed about the upcoming elections on Tuesday.

I went to their web site after I'd recovered from the initial shock. There, of course, they have all the "Editor's note: The assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27 occurred after PARADE’s Jan. 6 issue went to press" business. But there was absolutely no explanation in our paper, no statement that the supplement was put in there because the interview was so important or whatever. Just the shock of seeing this photo and interview, and the sadness of remembering that she is no longer here.

1 comment:

Fran said...

Ugh. Parade. Last week GWB with his big smug smile and now this. I never liked Parade, but now...

On the front page of our paper there was a clear notice of why this was done.

Then on Sunday Weekend Edition, they interviewed the publisher who gave a bunch of gobbledy-gook about how it was printed over a week earlier.

WTF? So much for business agility in the media in the age of technology.