Article Comparison

On September 19, 19 people we taken hostage while on a safari in southwestern Egypt. On September 29, these hostages were released or rescued according to which article you read. The online article I read about this event is from The New York Times, the original report comes from The Associated Press. The print version of the story is from The Wall Street Journal. These two reports of events are completely different and the facts change.

The report in The Wall Street Journal seems like it comes as a sidenote to other, more important stories at the time of printing. It is printed on page 13 at the bottom of the page. The report only is only about a paragraph long and is misleading. The report says that Egyptian and Sudanese troops rescued the hostages and that half of the kidnappers were killed during the rescue mission.

The report by The Associated Press is much longer, and much clearer to understand. I feel that Marta Falconi, the writer for the Associated Press did more research and it resulted with a better, clearly written story. In the online version of this report it is explained that the six kidnappers were killed on Sunday morning when they were sent for food and fuel, the other two kidnappers were captured. The other kidnappers then received word of what happened and lined up the hostages and ran, leaving a car and GPS system. This would be instrumental in the rescue of the hostages, they used the car and GPS system to drive through the desert to the Egyptian border.

I would've expected the report in The Wall Street Journal to be more extensive than an online version of the story. I was disappointed in what seems like the very little amount of reporting The Wall Street Journal did. The story by The Associated Press is much clearer and easier to understand.