I used to have a crusty Glaswegian editor. Once, when I was lounging in the newsroom reading, he snapped, “There’s nae stories in books!” He commanded, “Git oot there, man.”
In fact, I shaped a scoop from my reading that day. Nonetheless, I’ve valued his advice ever since and have always preferred the big, wide world, where life is messy and confusing.
Andrew Marr, onetime editor of Britain’s Independent newspaper and now a TV anchor, once noted how “reporters bringing in unexpected information” can upend editors’ opinions and challenge their preconceived notions about an issue or event.
That tension between editor and reporter is all-important, contributing to what should be a daily conversation between professionals in “open, argumentative and serious debates” about stories, Marr said. So together a distinctive view of the world can be shaped, he maintained.
And hopefully, I’d add, one more true to life.
I’m not sure that’s happening much on either side of the Atlantic, judging by the output of many major news outlets. Despite the explosion of Internet “news sites,” what’s offered up are prepackaged narratives flowing from binary mindsets with facts made to fit, nuances discarded.
A Slovak diplomat at an energy conference in Kiev the other day reminded me of that when she noted how most of Eastern Europe is applauding President Trump for his opposition to Nord Stream 2. That’s the Kremlin-favored pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany without transiting through an older pipeline stretching across Ukraine and Poland and other central European states, like Slovakia.
The diplomat lavished praise on Trump. “Of course the Germans don’t agree,” she said as we tucked into the buffet lunch, surrounded by energy executives busy negotiating next year’s gas prices.
The central Europeans object to Nord Stream 2 not only because of the loss of transit fees, but because they fear the Kremlin wants to develop the new pipeline for political reasons, not commercial ones. The Kremlin would have the opportunity to switch off gas to Ukraine and central Europe when it wants to blackmail its nearer neighbors without disrupting supplies to Western Europe, lessening likely pushback from the more powerful European states while it toys with weaker ones.
Under pressure from German businesses, Chancellor Angela Merkel is backing Nord Stream 2. The Trump administration isn’t and has warned of the dark political menace of the new pipeline.
That opposition to one of the Kremlin’s pet projects doesn’t fit the simple “narrative” pushed by some that Trump is in Vladimir Putin’s pocket. Nor does the recent decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, Treaty because of Russian cheating. Nor does this prompt U.S. support for Britain in the wake of the Skripal poisoning.
Are there strains galore in the Atlantic alliance at the moment? Of course, but the picture is a lot messier than “binary” coverage would have you believe. And the tensions aren’t just a matter of the U.S. versus the Europeans. The Europeans are at odds with themselves. On Trump’s INF decision, Germany and France are mired in angst, but Britain and the central Europeans are supportive.
Take another dominant narrative, this time drawn by conservative-based news organizations, that several countries are straining at the leash to follow Britain and break with the European Union. Italy often gets cited as a prime example.
But indeed, it isn’t a prevailing sentiment I encounter from Italians. Over a prosecco, Italians will moan and complain freely about the EU, especially when it comes to migration. But then ask them whether Italy should exit, and a look of horror clouds most faces.
“And get ourselves in the chaos the British are in?” a farmer snorted at me in Italian as we tested his home-brewed grappa. In fact, many Italians harbor great pride in Italy having been a founding member of the EU.
The EU anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” is played at municipal and local association meetings the length of the country, and Italians stand as respectfully for it as they do for the Italian anthem which precedes.
Jamie Dettmer is an international correspondent and broadcaster for VOA.
