There is nothing quite so entertaining – or so illogical these days – than an old-fashioned newspaper war such as the one that Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is picking with the New York Times on the paper’s home turf.
The Journal recently launched its Greater New York section, in which it has invested heavily (although Mr Murdoch insisted on an investor conference call on Tuesday that the reputed figure of $30m was too high). Since then, it has been competing head-on with the NYT’s metro section.
The competition appears to be having an effect, to judge by the spirited efforts of NYT reporters to track down details about Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of attempting to set off a crude car bomb in Times Square this weekend.
NYT reporters who went to his home in Connecticut found a treasure trove of documents by rummaging through the rubbish he had left behind. As their story delicately puts it:
Mr Shahzad was born in Pakistan in 1979, though there is some confusion over where. Officials in Pakistan said it was in Nowshera, an area in northern Pakistan known for its Afghan refugee camps. But on a university application Mr Shahzad had filled out and was found in the maggot-covered garbage outside the Shelton house on Tuesday, he listed Karachi.
In the maggot-covered garbage, indeed. That is the sort of enterprising research that would be envied by The Sun and The News of the World, Mr Murdoch’s UK tabloids.
Although the Journal’s reporters hurried to the scene and produced their own long story with details about Mr Shahzad’s background, they seem to have been behind on the rubbish.
One-up to the NYT, I think.
