Framing: Binghamton, NY Shooting

Intro:

            April 3, 2009, a gunman invaded an immigration service center during a citizenship class killing 12 people, wounding 4 and then killing himself in downtown Binghamton, NY.    I observed two articles on the matter; one from the New York Times and the other from The Guardian.  While the two articles virtually convey the same story, it seems that the New York Times is given sustainably more detailed information than The Guardian.

New York Times:

            In the New York Times article, the story mentions that 13 people were killed and four were injured in the tragic event.  The story states that 37 people were held hostage in the immigration service center by Jiverly Wong, a 42 year old Vietnamese immigrant who had prior relationships with the center.  The story says that the gunman drove his fathers car up against the backdoor so no one could escape then walked through the front door shooting the two secretaries at the reception desk then proceeding to the nearest classroom.  Many hid in the basement or the boiler room for three hours until the SWAT team moved into the building.  The article ends with interviews of several people in Binghamton, NY.

The Guardian:

            The Guardian article seemed to receive a lot less information.  The story was half the length of the New York Times and did not yet have the proper statistics for the article.  Unlike the New York Times, The  Guardian did not know the name of the gunman or that he had a prior relationship to the building.  The article stated that 13 people were killed and 40 were held hostage.  There was no mention of the 4 wounded people.  The Guardian stated that the gunman blockaded the backdoor with a car then walked into the classroom with open fire.  The mention of the secretaries at the reception desk was absent as well as the people who were able to hide in the boiler room.  The Guardian ended the story by mentioning that Democrats are promoting stricter gun laws and that the Obama administration is supporting the renewal of an expired federal ban on assault weapons.

Conclusion:

            Both articles covered the same story with very different approaches.  The New York Times had extremely detailed information and did not put any sort of opinion into the article.  The Guardian had limited details and ended the article with a Democratic opinion.  By ending the article with the statement of Democrats supporting stricter gun control gives a liberalist view on a non-political article.  The stories mostly varied in the details of the event but also varied in staying strictly to fact and placing a political opinion into the story.