The disgusting and disappointing story that has emerged surrounding the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has received new developments this week with the woman accusing Strauss-Kahn of rape finally publically revealing her story. Interestingly, even between large news publications the journalistic aspects prove to hold very different approaches. The approach of The New York Times appears to be very informative and straight to the point, citing Nafissatou Diallo’s exclusive public interview featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, Monday, July 25^th. Secondly, the article cites her other interview with Newsweek and then lightly compares her statements, finding them to be mostly in line with one another. As much of this investigative reporting appears for the most part to be unbiased, the New York Times gives its readers a straightforward and comprehensive overview of the new developments in such a large case. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/nyregion/housekeeper-details-strauss-kahn-encounter.html?hp&gwh=9D1B745AFF72051475EF025EBD5D4C65

In comparison, one look at USA Today and immediately the tone of the same story is overshadowed by the recognition of the commonality of media publicity stunts in criminal cases such as the Strauss-Kahn case. USA Today’s voice sounds accusatory and skeptical of the hotel worker’s motivations in suddenly revealing her story after warding off the press for so long. Additionally, the USA Today makes many references to the legal issues regarding public interviews by a victim during the middle of a case, quoting one New York City lawyer as saying, “…there’s a risk that whatever she says can be used against her in a civil or criminal case, especially with respect to any inconsistencies.” http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2011-07-25-strauss-kahn-accuser-public_n.htm

Similar to the New York Times, BBC News gives its readers a seemingly straight forward and informative article on the same subject approaching its material with a timeline sort of relay of events which led up to the current issue. As this news source seems to be the most tactful one yet, much of the graphic quotes and storytelling from the issues that were in both The New York Times and USA Today are not present. Also, the issues of credibility and publicity stunt making are less accusatory and more objective, giving the reader up-to-date information surrounding the case, but not placing partiality anywhere within the story. The article is shorter than the other two major sources but includes a video segment from BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14271114

Still different, Aljazeera English reports on the same story in its headlines, but the video counterpart that sits atop the article goes much more in depth into the story than the written journalism does. Probably the most interesting aspect to Aljazeera’s coverage is that it also includes a snippet about the New York Post being successfully sued by Diallo over some of their publications where anonymous sources accused her of selling sex for money and referring to her as a prostitute. While none of the other news stories made mention of this, it is extremely interesting that the publication which is based in neither the U.S. or Europe felt no qualm with disclosing this important fact related to the media, publicity stunts and biased journalism. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/07/201172521732476971.htm

Lastly, The Huffington Post features it’s own retelling of the Strauss-Kahn case and Diallo’s new interviews in a special segment of the online journal geared toward women readers called “Huffpost Women.” As this article refers to Diallo’s separate interviews in two “mainstream” news outlets, Newsweek and ABC, it does appear that this specific source is channeled for women readers, cutting out obscenities, adding pangs of sympathy towards the victim and informing its readers that Diallo may herself face charges if she is found to have been lying in either of her statements thus far. The most noteworthy difference, however, comes in the video accompaniment where statements are shown which imply that Strauss-Kahn may still have a good chance at French presidency if this case comes to be completely dismissed. That this huge factor was not noted in any other news source thus far should be troubling for not only women but men as well. Concerning the ease that Western society finds in dismissing sexual assaults on women, it is interesting that only the news source specifically generated towards readers was the one that disclosed such a huge development.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/24/nafissatou-diallo-interview_n_908166.html?ir=Women

In conclusion, the various analyses demonstrated in such different online news sources can be compared and contrasted. While larger publications such as The New York Times, USA Today, BBC and Aljazeera all had the same issue located somewhere very prominent within the top headlines, the Huffington Post proved somewhat more of a difficult finding. Even though the article included information that was not included in anywhere else, it was difficult to find and not something many people would stumble upon and read as it was hidden in the news section targeted towards women alone. Also, Aljazeera proved to yet again be an excellent source for information that was not only objective but also well-rounded when it came to unbiased facts. As The New York Times and USA Today are both extremely famous papers across the nation, it is surprising to recognize actually how graphic, violent and biased they really are in order to provoke and promote some kind of sensationalistic feeling within the reader. Perhaps the scariest part about this is that it goes unrecognized unless one really takes the time to contrast, compare and evaluate what they are voluntarily ingesting in such a day and age of unlimited varying news sources.