Assassination of Japan's Shinzo Abe stuns world leaders
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
We ran the numbers: There are 3,859 news articles covering this topic. 17% (661) are left-leaning, 49% (1,875) are centrist, and 34% (1,323) are right-leaning.
World leaders expressed their condolences after Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on Friday while giving a campaign speech in Nara. While left-leaning articles highlight President Joe Biden’s response to the murder, right-leaning articles highlight former President Donald Trump’s response. Both left-leaning and right-leaning articles discussed responses from world leaders ranging from Iran to Germany.
A left-leaning article from The Washington Post focused on how world leaders were stunned and how President Biden condemned the assassination, stating that he was “outraged, and deeply saddened.” While Chinese leaders expressed sympathies with Abe’s families, tens of thousands of Chinese nationalists sent unfavorable, unsupportive comments.
The Hill published a centrist article reporting on President Biden’s statements in response to the assassination of Prime Minister Abe. Biden doubts that the murder will cause instability in Japan or US-Japan relations. The President also stated that the weapon used in the attack appears homemade, but that the Department of Justice was conducting an investigation to learn more. The article also notes how the assassination was surprising given Japan’s strict gun laws.
A right-leaning article from the New York Post focused on tributes from shocked world leaders and how former President Trump called Abe a “truly great man and leader.” Abe was the longest-serving minister in Japan, stepping down in 2020 “due to the debilitating bowel condition ulcerative colitis.”