Article Analysis

India Says All Mumbai Attackers Came by Ship
By Robert F. Worth and Graham Bowley
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/world/asia/03mumbai.html?_r=1&hp

This article is a follow-up story to the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. The article was mainly written to report the development that the terrorists departed by ship from the Pakistani port of Karachi. This information is found in the hard news lede “The Mumbai attackers came by ship from the Pakistani port of Karachi, the Indian police said Tuesday, the most direct link made to Pakistan so far.” The lede only answers the question what and where, presumably because readers have been following the story from the beginning. Also, much like a crime story, much of the information is attributed and non-accusatory.

The nut graf is written in an extended form over the next few paragraphs, but essentially the “so what” of this article is that further connections to Pakistan are escalating tensions between India and Pakistan that have exponentially risen after the attacks. Fears of a military conflict between the two nations have many international players treading lightly. The article explains that India’s government is under pressure to appropriately react to the attacks but they have also failed at providing concreted evidence that implicates Pakistan’s government.

The rest of the story does not follow an inverted pyramid structure because there is very important information throughout the article all the way to the end. It includes things such as Condoleezza Rice’s plans to visit India in an effort to quell the tensions. Also, the article reports that India has demanded of Pakistan the capturing and handing over of over twenty wanted criminals. The last paragraph can be considered a fizzle-out ending to the article with no kicker quote.