One summer afternoon when I was a young boy in Michigan, I was lying on my back in a field staring up at a large tree. It was one of those windless days, hot and still.
After a while, I realized that a single leaf was for no apparent reason turning on its stem. As far as I could see, this leaf was identical to all the other leaves on the tree, but it was the only one moving.
I was not yet the journalist I would become but at least on this occasion I had the eye for detail that proved useful later on.
After all, one leaf turning might just be a story. Many leaves holding in place most likely is not.
The problem with this for journalists is that by focusing on the exception to the rule, we may give the impression that the rule is no longer in order. An example of this is crime reporting. Covering one shocking crime too intensely can create the illusion that an entire city is “awash in crime” when the fact is the opposite is true.
In fact, most such crimes are actually just anomalies.
Of course, there is an entirely different way to tell any story. That solitary leaf I saw may have been ahead of its time — portending a climate disaster to come when all the other leaves remained quiet, steady in place, doing what they were expected to do.
In this version, the swinging leaf is a whistleblower, a ‘canary in the coal mine,’ an indicator of bigger problems.
Enter the investigative reporter, who picks up on the signal and spots a pattern that may provide an explanation for the turning leaf. After observing hundreds of trees, with many thousands of leaves, and interviewing numerous scientists, none of whom can say for sure, the reporter writes a more nuanced story based on the data.
In this new story, we learn that there are many such single leaves on many trees turning slowly on windless days where no one is there to see. But it is also possible that if no one saw them then that didn’t really happen. (Quantum physics.) Then again, perhaps there is a new disease affecting our trees that we need to address if we are to save the forest.
Meanwhile, the people reading these stories may well be still thinking about that one single leaf, turning without reason on a windless day long ago in Michigan. If so, just like the storyteller, they may never see the forest for the trees.
(This is the latest version of a very old essay.)
HEADLINES:
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here — Trump’s administration is only pretending to comply with the Supreme Court on the matter of a Maryland man it deported erroneously. (Atlantic)
President of El Salvador says he won't return mistakenly deported man to U.S. (NBC)
Man accused of setting fire to Pennsylvania governor’s home said he would’ve beaten him with hammer, affidavit says (CNN)
Trump plan would slash State Dept. funding by nearly half, memo says (WP)
White House to Ask Congress to Claw Back Funding From NPR and PBS (NYT)
'Putin is mocking Trump': EU foreign ministers call for new sanctions on Russia after Sumy attack (Euronews)
Kleptocracy, Inc. — Under Trump, conflicts of interest are just part of the system. (Atlantic)
Next Iran-US nuclear talks will be held in Rome, AP source says (AP)
China has put civilian government officials in Beijing on “wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against US tariffs, according to four people familiar with the matter. Here's how China went from courting Trump to ‘never yield’ tariff defiance. (Reuters)
DOGE Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress (NYT)
Harvard rejects Trump administration’s demands, putting billions in federal funding at risk (WP)
Meta’s Hopes of a Tech Antitrust Reprieve Are Dashed (Bloomberg)
Troops arrive at the border to help with enforcement despite fewer migrant crossings (NPR)
Canadians Are Cashing Out Their American Vacation Homes (WSJ)
Trump’s executive order on elections, Mike Johnson’s SAVE Act, and Republican-backed laws nationwide are threatening many Americans’ right to vote (Rolling Stone)
Fear of unemployment jumps to highest level since the pandemic (CNN)
‘Parkinson’s is a man-made disease’ (Politico)
Google’s newest AI model is designed to help study dolphin ‘speech’ (TechCrunch)
Small Language Models Are the New Rage, Researchers Say (Wired)
Report: Majority Of Nation’s Civic Engagement Centered Around Oppressing Other People (The Onion)
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