This Is A Bomb

“DID THEY FOIL A NEW 9/11?” asks the Mail’s front-page question. It’s a 15-page special. It’s a good effort.

And it would have been the most extensive reporting on the alleged plot to destroy ten passenger-laden airplanes had it not been for the Mirror. “MADNESS,” it says. And you can read all about the insanity right up page 17.

The Mirror wins! The Mirror has delivered more in-depth reporting on the big news story. Or has it just padded out its newssheet with spurious detail and guesswork?

We look again. And we see that over two pages headlined (in a big font) “MASS MURDER AT 34,000FT” there is an artist’s impression of what might have happened had the terrorists boarded a plane.

The Mail, which came in second in the coverage stakes, uses half a page to show us what a terrorist might have looked like as he took liquid chemicals from an onboard accomplice and set off to the toilets to make a bomb. He has a beard, full lips and wears a blue jumper.

Over in the Mirror, the accomplice is wearing a white shirt. He passes through airport security. In scene two of four, he hands the liquid to the bomb maker (blue shirt; no beard) who, as in the Mirror, goes to the airplane’s toilet to concoct his deadly device.

The Mirror then shows the man (still in his blue shirt) planting a bomb in the toilet. And the result? Well, over an entire page, Mirror readers get to see a cartoon of what a plane would look like with an orange flame coming out of one side.

But it’s not all art. There are photographs in the Mirror, too. And one page on from the big bang is a big picture of a British passport in a plastic bag and the caption: “Only essential items…will be permitted”…

Posted: 11th, August 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink