Rating: NNNNN
The Globe
Main headline: Screams, “What now?”
Pages devoted to Saddam’s capture: 10
Overall tone of coverage: Hold the champagne. There’s still the messy business of a war crimes trial to figure out. And Saddam has an ace up his sleeve: “the power to embarrass the West.”
Focus of main editorial: Let’s all pull together to “finish the job” in Iraq.
Reality check: On page 2, a story about pro-American Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaping an assassination attempt.
Take on Arab reaction: Ambivalence.
The curious part: How much ink was spilled suggesting Saddam’s capture presents a perfect opportunity for newly minted PM Paul Martin “to make nice with the U.S.” and finagle contracts for rebuilding Iraq. Maybe not so curious for a business-minded paper.
Question Globe asked that other paper’s didn’t: What ever happened to the hunt for Osama bin Laden?
The Sun
Main headline: Gotta love the animal imagery.
Pages devoted to Saddam’s capture: 17
Overall tone of coverage: Revenge at last. Now the Iraqis will truly be free. We’ll ignore the 130,000 U.S. troops occupying their country.
Focus of main editorial: A Pontius Pilate rerun: Let’s not soil our hands with his blood. Let the Iraqis off him.
Reality check: It comes late, a short wire piece on page 35 about Saddam and bin Laden being named to a list of “greatest Arabs ever.”
Take on Arab reaction: Joy and celebration. Sun editors must not get out much.
The curious part: That the salivating Sun didn’t turn the front page into a Saddam dart board.
Question Sun asked that other paper’s didn’t: (by Peter Worthington in his page-16 column) Wouldn’t this all be much easier if Saddam were killed?
The Post
Main headline: Taking rah-rah U.S. view.
Pages devoted to Saddam’s capture: 17, most praising American resolve and “willpower.”
Overall tone of coverage: We now have all the justification we need for the war. Those who thought this would be another Vietnam should be eating crow.
Focus of main editorial: This will be the biggest trial since Nuremberg.
Reality check: None offered. But how about “Where are the weapons of mass destruction?”
Take on Arab reaction: Humiliation.
The curious part: Page-11 story: “the most compelling evidence” yet, or so the headline kicker says, for a Saddam link (courtesy of a top-secret memo) to 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. Even Bush has said there’s no link.
Question Post asked that other paper’s didn’t: (in op-ed piece by George Jonas) Why don’t we just shoot Saddam out of hand?
The Star
Main headline: Multicultural Star stoops to trashy tabloid treatment — “Bedraggled Saddam Hussein ‘caught like a rat in a hole.'”
Pages devoted to Saddam’s capture: 10
Overall tone of coverage: Beware the humiliation factor, and the bitterness of Iraqis “already soured by the indignity of occupation.”
Focus of main editorial: Saddam’s arrest “does nothing to strengthen Bush’s moral case for a $150-billion war that’s cost the lives of 13,000 Iraqis.”
Reality check: Bush warning on page 6 that attacks on U.S. troops are not over.
Take on Arab reaction: Joy, wariness. “There is no pride in what Americans have done to my country,” the headline kicker quote reads.
The curious part: Page 10 piece by Washington bureau correspondent Tim Harpur suggesting the entire war in Iraq was about Bush’s “obsession” to “get the guy who tried to kill my dad.”
Question Star asked that other paper’s didn’t: Can Saddam get a fair trial in Iraq?
