Columnist Criticizes Coverage of Who Might Have Killed Bhutto

By: E&P Staff Media coverage of who might have killed Pakistan's former leader was often slanted, Bob Koehler says in his latest syndicated column.

"Many U.S. media outlets were quick to give us a primer on Islamic terrorism in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination last week, even though actual evidence points the finger far more at our ally in the war on terror, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, than it does at the Taliban or al-Qaida," the Tribune Media Services commentator wrote in today's piece.

Koehler continued: "Indeed, McClatchy Newspapers recently reported that Bhutto, at the time of her murder, was in possession of evidence that Pakistan's military intelligence agency was planning to rig the upcoming election in Musharraf's favor, supplying, as if it were needed, an obvious motive for getting rid of her."

The columnist said that "without such shamelessly bad reporting -- perhaps a better term is 'pseudo-reporting' -- we couldn't have gone to war with Iraq in 2003 or, for that matter, Spain in 1898. Pseudo-reporting has, alas, a long tradition."

Koehler's entire Jan. 3 column can be seen here.