When I scanned today's Sunday Inquirer, I came across the Parade Magazine
insert, which had a full cover photo of the late Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.
Thinking it was a tribute, I began reading it, only to discover that it was an
interview that had been conducted with her shortly before she was assassinated.
The story was written in the present tense as if she were still alive and was
being interviewed today about her participation in the elections that were
originally scheduled for this week. The Inquirer front page included a small
box at the bottom of the page that said that the magazine insert had already
been published when Prime Minister Bhutto was assassinated on December 27. But
that certainly does not expain the Inquirer's breathtaking display of poor
taste in not pulling the Parade Magazine from its Sunday editions. They had
since December 27 to so, and that front page box could have instead stated that
there would be no Parade insert out of respect for the fact that the Prime
Minister had been murdered after publication of the interview.
Karen Allen 's decision to he present tense as if she were being interviewed
today. the election was , discussing what she anticipate of her written
despite the fact that the subject of its cover story, Parade Magazine's cover
story was an interview with the late Benizir Bhutto, conducted in anticipation
of the Pakistani elections originally scheduled for this weekwritten before In
a breathtaking display of bad taste, the Inquirer included the Parade Magazine
in today's paper, instead of pulling it.
