e The attempted assassination of the late Pope John Paul II in 1981 was a major headline that filled the airwaves and print media over the next couple of days. The event took place on a Wednesday evening of 13th May. In a swift response, The New York Times had already written a fairly informative article about the incident that was published in the Thursday, 14th May 1981 edition. The article was written by Henry Tanner, and sought to inform a predominantly ??˜ignorant??™ public that had only just heard of the attempted assassination probably through radio or television. One of the key selling points that this article held was the fact that it was published in The New York Times.