Comparing four newspaper ledes on the death of Kim Jong Il offers a useful primer on the shortcomings of the Houston Chronicle and New York Times and the relatively better work at the Washington Post (where, at least, the liberals are adults and editors still demand journalism) and the generally excellent Wall Street Journal.
Absurdly gentle
Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader . . .
whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69. (Associated Press, Houston Chronicle)
Halfway admiring
Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader who realized his family's dream of turning his starving, isolated country into a nuclear-weapons power even as it sank further into despotism, died on Saturday of a heart attack while traveling on his train, according to an announcement Monday by the country's state-run media. (New York Times)
Clear
Kim Jong Il, the dictator who used fear and isolation to maintain power in North Korea and his nuclear weapons to menace his neighbors and threaten the U.S. [read United States], has died, North Korean state television reported early Monday. (Wall Street Journal)
Best, by far: a model lede
Kim Jong Il, the strangely antic and utterly ruthless heir to North Korea's Stalinist dictatorship, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday, state media reported Monday. He was said to be 69. During his reign, he menaced the world with his nuclear ambitions and presided over a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of his subjects. (Washington Post)
Point-by-point comparison
Mr. Kim's Character
Chronicle: "mercurial and enigmatic" [like your crazy uncle, ha ha].
Washington Post: "strangely antic and utterly ruthless" [appropriately judgmental].
NYT, WSJ: silent [he was nuts; they should have said so].
Job title
Chronicle, NYT: "leader" [absurdly nonjudgmental, though the Chronicle added "iron rule" and the NYT mentioned that North Korea "sank deeper into despotism"; but notice that the actor here is the county (it just sank), not the dictator].
WSJ: "dictator" [clear, correct].
WP: "heir to North Korea's Stalinist dictatorship" [excellent].
Nukes
Chronicle: "nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears" ["ambitions," not "weapons?" Left unsaid, whether the world's fears were rational or irrational].
NYT: "realized his family's dream of turning North Korea into a nuclear-weapons power" [fawning; just a good, dream-fulfilling family man].
WSJ: "used his nuclear weapons to menace his neighbors and threaten the United States" [best: "weapons," not "ambitions"; "menace" and "threat" are treated as real things, not something to be inferred from the world's possibly irrational fears].
WP: "menaced the world with his nuclear ambitions" [good].
Famine
Chronicle, WSJ: silent [what famine?].
NYT: "his starving country" [again, strangely passive; the country, not Kim, is the actor; Mr. Kim's responsibility is nowhere to be seen].
WP: "presided over a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of his subjects" [exactly right; he presided; and the victims were subjects, not citizens].
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