The Real Story

The main problem with the news business in America starts with its definition. 

We believe that the news is what is *new*. That is obvious and hardly worth comment until you think of the implications.

Naturally, we all want to know what's new. What's new in the world, what's new down at the corner, what's new with those we care about. Some might call that gossip.

But by focusing our journalistic talent almost exclusively on the latest developments, our media industry largely ignores the far bigger stories, which are mainly about what is old.

Poverty is old. Racism is old. Sexism is old. The awful and endless disparity in opportunity is old. Access to education, health care, safety, security, even access to food is an old, old story.

Furthermore, way too much of our standard news coverage focuses on the way things do not work. Whenever there is a breakdown of one system or another, that becomes news. Fires, accidents, losses, disasters and any kind of other anomaly is considered to be news.

To counter this problem at the Center for Investigative Reporting we used to have a saying that we weren't so interested in how things *don't* work. Rather, we were more interested in how things *do* work (*). 

What we meant by that was our focus on was how power is actually exercised in the world day to day -- politically, economically, socially, culturally.

Our mission largely rested on the idea that the worst forms of corruption are those so entrenched systemically in business as usual as to be virtually impossible to root out.

These are problems like internalized racism or structural inequality, historical sexism or unconscious bias of any kind.

These are not anomalies, these are the norm.

So that is why we need investigative reporters -- people who not only think outside of the box, but who can remain far enough outside of the box to see it for what it is:

A system of entrenched, corrupt power exercised by the few over the many. A system that is rigged. A system so completely at odds with the Constitution of the United States of America that except for little glimmers of hope now and then, it systematically ruins millions of lives in order to enrich the tiniest of elites at the top.

Luckily for those who benefit the most, we have religious leaders and entertainment executives and dope dealers and propagandists of all stripes who work overtime to keep all of the rest of us hooked on "what's new." 

And anybody who is so comfortable with their circumstances that they don't understand what I am talking about is very much a part of the problem, and therefore not of the solution.

(*) NOTE: My memory is that it was our friend and colleague, the investigative reporter Mark Dowie who coined that phrase.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Today’s kids will live through three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents, study says (WP)

* U.S. Failed to Build a Sustainable Economy in Afghanistan --The U.S. spent $145 billion over two decades to help the country stand on its own, but the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of foreign aid have left the Afghan economy on the verge of collapse. (WSJ)

* Trump won't receive "executive privilege" protection from Biden for his communications about the Jan. 6 riot, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. A congressional committee has issued subpoenas to four of Trump's former aides, leading Trump to issue a rambling statement about "executive privilege." [HuffPost]

* America’s Need to Pay Its Bills Has Spawned a Political Game -- Republicans and Democrats have long sparred over raising the debt ceiling. But this time, the odds are growing that the U.S. could default. (NYT)

* Facebook Pauses Instagram for Kids (WSJ)

* China power crunch spreads, shutting factories and dimming growth outlook (Reuters)

* Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is objecting to "Build Back Better" legislation that would dramatically increase federal support for child care — something desperately needed in Manchin's state. Whatever his fears are about government spending, there are unmet needs, especially in West Virginia, that the spending is designed to address. [HuffPost]

* Supreme Court observers see trouble ahead as public approval of justices erodes (WP)

* The Pandemic’s Toll on Women’s Careers (WSJ)

* For Schumer and Pelosi, the Challenge of a Career With No Margin for Error -- The top two Democrats in Congress face a daunting pile of legislative imperatives. With President Biden’s agenda hanging in the balance and few votes to spare, can they get it done? (NYT)

* Pfizer begins study of oral drug for prevention of COVID-19 (Reuters)

* Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she was wrong to oppose gay marriage in the past, a stand that once split her family. The Donald Trump critic said she views her reelection campaign as the most important House race in the nation as forces aligned with the former president try to unseat her. [HuffPost]

* This was the worst slaughter of Native Americans in U.S. history. Few remember it. (WP)

* Economists Estimate Human Civilization Still Years Away From Turning Profit (The Onion)

Connecting Again

Saturday I traveled back to my favorite city and spent a long, luxurious afternoon with two friends who also happen to be two of the best young journalists I know. All over downtown the restaurants were crowded, with lines of people clustered in groups, dressed up, smiling, complimenting strangers on their dresses, their haircuts, their shoes.

Gay, straight, trans, bi, non gender, old, young (mostly young), all races, all out for a good time.

It was quintessential San Francisco.

Since the pandemic disrupted all of our lives, I've noticed a lovely new pattern. When we do get together, my friends and I tend to be in no rush. We spend the time to really talk, connect, and catch up on our lives since the last time we got together. It's rare that anyone keeps an eye on the clock, or feels an urgency to move on to the next appointment.

That's how it was in the old days, the ones that are gone.

Maybe over the past 18 months we've learned to value friendship beyond what we did before. To be able to call somebody you friend is a gift, an honor, a prized development in your life.

So see? That scary old pandemic wasn't all bad after all! But as much as some of us are living our lives with new appreciation for each other, I observe that certain others are still shrinking away from contact just like they did at the height of the plague.

They hide behind masks that really are no longer necessary, at least not around here. In the Bay Area, our vaccination rates are so low and our virus-prevention consciousness so high that we've reduced Covid to a mere irritation way far back in the background of our daily lives.

We don't much think or talk about it any more. It's over.

Sure it could come back, some scary new mutant may emerge but we'll deal with that if and when it happens, which it most likely won't.

As I've said many times, everyone should beware of the of the steep cost of isolating and shrinking away from human contact. Dying of Covid is no picnic, but isolation will kill you just as surely as Covid ever could have done.

***

Some people say that old-school style reporters like my young friends represent a dying breed. But I'm not buying that. Every so often during my entire career, there have been those who claim that the golden age for journalism is over and now all that's left are light-weight, celebrity-chasing narcissists.

There may be plenty of fluff out there, but it's mainly confined to TV and the amateurish parts of the Internet.

The news sources I cull day after day are staffed by the legitimate custodians of our best journalistic traditions. They do the work the right way most of the time and you can count on a high degree of accuracy in their reporting.

That doesn't mean that various biases don't creep into the system because they do. It also doesn't mean commercial pressures do not influence coverage because they do. But the reporters I know and work with are honest, hard-working people who know how to recognize patterns in the news, develop sources, interpret documents, interview people, document their pieces and write a good story.

This high-quality methodology is followed by the leading newspapers, wire services, non-profits like CIR and Pro-Public, the entire public media sector (NPR, PBS, CPB, etc.) and a surprising number of smaller outfits scattered around the country.

If I cite them, you can trust them. Today's journalism is as good as it's ever been.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* This Is No Way to End a Pandemic -- Getting first shots in arms, globally, is more important than any booster program.  (Editorial Board/NYT)

* More men are abandoning college. Professor explains why this is dangerous -- NYU Professor Scott Galloway says the drop in men going to college is part of a growing mating crisis in the US and that the country runs the risk of producing "too many of the most dangerous cohort in the world" if the trend isn't reversed. (CNN)

* WHO Seeks to Revive Stalled Inquiry Into Origins of Covid-19 (WSJ)

* Election fraud, QAnon, Jan. 6: Extremists in Germany read from a pro-Trump script (WP)

* Among Those Who Marched Into the Capitol on Jan. 6: An F.B.I. Informant (NYT)

* Russia says it’s in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban (AP)

* Taliban puts bodies of alleged kidnappers on public display, in a sign of return to harsh Islamic justice (WP)

* UN and Afghanistan’s Taliban, figuring out how to interact (AP)

* Democrats’ Spending Fight Carries High Stakes for Their Candidates (NYT)

* You may get more work done at home. But you’d have better ideas at the office. (WP)

* ‘Stop the Steal’ Movement Races Forward, Ignoring Arizona Humiliation (NYT)

* Swiss look set to accept same-sex marriage in referendum (Reuters)

* Japan's Kono says same-sex marriage should be discussed in parliament (Reuters)

* God Announces Plans To Shift Majority Of Resources Tied Up In Humanity Project To Birds, Rocks (The Onion)

Separated by A Degree

One of the earliest joys of the Internet for many of us was the ability to uncover just how closely connected we all are with others. We previously had no easy way of knowing that stuff. A few degrees of separation were all that separated each of us from presidents, actors, athletes, billionaires and beauty queens.

Alternatively, we found out we were not all that far removed from some pretty nasty characters as well.

We also cross paths with people all the time, online and off, and one of my preoccupations, once I really connect with someone, is to wonder how closely we may have been to encountering each other sometime in the past.

Perhaps we passed within one block of each other in some random city years ago -- one of us going one direction, one in another.

We just missed.

As I sort through the news, these sort of connections and missed connections pop up all the time.

One of the ancients still kicking in the Senate, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, was a 40ish chair of a House agricultural committee when he questioned a 30ish journalist rather harshly half a lifetime ago. 

He had a coarse Midwestern twang and probably assumed the reporter was some city slicker who cared only about an environmental issue he termed the "Circle of Poison," and that he could care less for the plight of farmers like those in his district.

They sparred over pesticides but he seemed surprised when the journalist described his concern for the small farmers who were among the primary victims of the multinational agrochemical companies he'd exposed in his book.

That was many years ago now, probably forty. I doubt he even remembers the encounter or knew that the city clicker he met that day was the only son of a man who grew up on a small farm in Ontario.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Biden defends his social agenda bill, saying the cost will be zero -- The president argued that the cost of the package — composed of significant investments in health care, climate, education and the social safety net — will be offset by tax hikes on the wealthy and big corporations. (WP)

* Republican Review of Arizona Vote Fails to Show Stolen Election -- The criticized review showed much the same results as in November, with 99 more Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump ones. (NYT)

* How Facebook’s ‘metaverse’ became a political strategy (WP)

* U.S. condemns Taliban's reported plan to reinstate executions, amputations (Reuters)

* For India’s Military, a Juggling Act on Two Hostile Fronts -- Tensions with China and Pakistan stretch a cash-starved military, while the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban removes a potential ally. (NYT)

* Radical leader of Pakistan’s Red Mosque emboldened by Taliban takeover of Afghanistan (WP)

* COVID-19 vaccine boosters could mean billions for drugmakers (AP)

* Swamped with covid patients, Washington hospitals struggle to avoid Idaho’s fate (WP)

* Covid-19 Panel Probing Virus Origins Is Disbanded (WSJ)

* Sen. Grassley, oldest GOP senator at 88, announces he will seek another term (WP)

* Democrats Consider Adding Carbon Tax to Budget Bill -- A tax on carbon dioxide pollution could be the single most effective policy to tackle climate change. It could also be politically explosive. (NYT)

* Dying crops, spiking energy bills, showers once a week. In South America, the climate future has arrived. (WP)

* In aging Germany, the young get desperate over climate (Reuters)

* When the FBI seizes your messages from Big Tech, you may not know it for years (WP)

* The Cost of Insuring Expensive Waterfront Homes Is About to Skyrocket -- New federal flood insurance rates that better reflect the real risks of climate change are coming. (NYT)

* EU Honors Angela Merkel’s Tenure By Giving Her Greece (The Onion)

"A Person Not a Book"

In Denmark, there are libraries where you can borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes.  The aim is to fight against prejudices.  Each person has a title - "unemployed", "refugee", "bipolar", etc.  - but by listening to their story, you realize how much you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover".  This innovative and brilliant project is active in more than 50 countries.  It's called "The Human Library".

____________________________________

It's worth pondering how we label each other and how those labels influence the opinions of others. Just one word about a person can elicit an unintended image.

When I'm writing, I try to stay vigilant about this, because if I am careless, the image evoked in a reader's mind could influence them in ways I have no intention of doing.

And if there was one takeaway from interviewing hundreds of people in my journalism career,  it is that people's complexities resist stereotyping.

Therefore, we all might do a better job of describing people by directly juxtaposing their various contradictions -- at least the ones that that strike us. 

For example: "She doesn't look you in the eye when she talks to you, which can make it seem like she is shy. She looks off in the distance somewhere. But when she is finished, she fixes a piercing gaze straight into your eyes, awaiting your response. At that moment you realize she isn't shy at all, just respectful. Demanding even."

Or: "He comes off as blustery when you first meet him. It's like he carries around a mental checklist of his major accomplishments -- one, two, three -- which are guaranteed to impress you. As you get to know him, however, you realize just how uncertain about himself he really is, and how desperately he would like you to like him. Maybe he tries too hard."

This dialectical approach to description zeros in but leaves room for alternative interpretations.

So I realize that the Danish library project is geared toward a slightly different issue -- making the voices of people accessible despite labels that may conjure pejorative images.

In that context, personally I struggle when presenting my Afghan friends, past and present, to American and European readers. Unless you have been there, and experienced their warmth and vulnerability and strength and ruthlessness first-hand, it is difficult to express in writing.

Especially in English.

Actually, in my lowest moments, I fear that the Afghan experience does not translate linguistically or culturally. I could labor for many, many hours just to compose each sentence of description, only to fail. 

So let me put it directly: Forget what I say. If you would go there and meet them yourself, you would never forget them the rest of your life.

(Thanks to my friend and journalist Bruce Koon for the Denmark lead.)

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Since Covid-19 Hit, Research on Viruses Has Exploded. Is It Safe? (WSJ)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed COVID-19 booster shots for Americans age 65 and older, nursing home residents, and those aged 50 and older who have risky underlying health conditions. But CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky made an additional recommendation her agency's advisers had rejected: booster shots for people ages 18 and older who are health care workers or who work at jobs with increased risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. [AP, NYT, WP]

* VIDEO: Cargo Ships Back Up Off the California Coast -- A record number of vessels were anchored off the coast of Southern California, waiting to unload cargo. The backlog came amid a surge in demand for imported goods and supply-chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

* Moderna’s chief expects enough coronavirus vaccine for everyone by next year. Much of the world is still waiting. (WP)

* Biden says COVID booster shots will be free and accessible (Reuters)

* Trapped Afghan Women Fear Retribution Under Taliban Rule (WSJ)

* As the Taliban bars some girls from school, their mothers’ dreams are also shattered (WP)

* VIDEO: Afghanistan’s Health System Is on the ‘Brink of Collapse,’ W.H.O. Says -- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director general, warned of an “imminent humanitarian catastrophe” as the country’s health care system struggles with a loss of foreign funding and dwindling supplies. (AP)

* Looming economic crisis overshadows Afghanistan talks at U.N. (WP)

* As Debt Default Looms, Yellen Faces Her Biggest Test Yet -- The Treasury secretary must wade into a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over raising the debt limit. (NYT)

* The Senate Small Business Committee has been unable to vote on the nomination of Dilawar Syed for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration because Republicans have boycotted the vote. If confirmed, Syed would become the highest-ranking Muslim official in American history. But like other Muslim Americans in public life, he is facing questions from Republicans about his allegiances, stemming from his religious faith. [HuffPost]

*  New York Passes Sweeping Bills to Improve Conditions for Delivery Workers -- A package of legislation from the City Council set minimum pay and working conditions, placing New York at the forefront of regulating a multibillion-dollar industry. (NYT)

* Thunberg joins climate rally in Germany ahead of election (AP)

* Leaders to UN: A warmer world is a more violent one, too (AP)

* Some Species Are Changing Along With the Climate-- Warmer conditions have prompted animals and plants to adopt new habits and evolve new traits: Squid are shrinking, lizards are growing bigger toes and trees are migrating (WSJ)

* World's youth take to the streets again to battle climate change (Reuters)

* The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel's mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict. (AP)

* Tens Of Thousands Of Black Women Vanish Each Year. This Website Tells Their Stories (NPR)

* "In Denmark, there are libraries where you can borrow a person instead of a book to listen to their life story for 30 minutes.  The aim is to fight against prejudices.  Each person has a title - "unemployed", "refugee", "bipolar", etc.  - but by listening to their story, you realize how much you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover".  This innovative and brilliant project is active in more than 50 countries.  It's called "The Human Library". (LinkedIn)

* In Aging Japan, Under 75 Is the New ‘Pre-Old’ (WSJ)

* Ancient Footprints Push Back Date of Human Arrival in the Americas -- Human footprints found in New Mexico are about 23,000 years old, a study reported, suggesting that people may have arrived long before the Ice Age’s glaciers melted. (NYT) The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. (AP)

* NASA's big new telescope could find hints of life on other planets. (NPR)

* Sleeping Beauty's forest is dying. It's not the only climate crisis facing Germany's next chancellor (CNN)

* Long, Loud ‘Umm’ Heralds Beginning Of Sentence (The Onion)

Yin Yang News

There are all kinds of currents running through the news cycle -- some hopeful and some not so much.

Women educators are determined to preserve the right of girls to continue to go to school under the Taliban rule, but the Taliban is coming out in defense of its strict (and incorrect) interpretation of Sharia law.

The Taliban advocates suppression of women. The Quran does not. Luckily, one of the benefits of the past 20 years of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan is that a generation of women has finally had the opportunity for a good education.

And they will resist any attempt to take that right away from their daughters.

***

The Wikimedia Foundation, a former client of mine, has raised a $100 million endowment. Among the dozens of companies I consulted with during my career, I always had a special place in my heart for Wikipedia, the foundation's main product.

The simple idea of summoning volunteers from all over the planet to gather, publish and maintain custody of the total of collective human knowledge is exactly the kind of hugely unrealistic idea that attracts me.

What did I do for them? Help them produce their annual report and main fundraising document. On that project, I worked with two brilliant designers, Rhonda Rubinstein and David Peters.

It was just for a few years but my visits to the foundations' office in Soma stand out as moments when I instinctively knew I was doing the right thing.

***

Less hopeful news is three of our seasons are shortening while one -- summer -- is lengthening. As with most global climate news, there is no silver lining to this one. 

But some experts think they can see the end of the Covid pandemic and that it may be about a year from now. 

That's a hopeful thought so for now I think I'll end on that...

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Women in Afghanistan Are Ready to Defy the Taliban and Teach Girls --Teachers in Afghanistan say they fear the gains of the last 20 years – one of the few Afghan success stories – will be lost, with the Taliban yet to announce when girls can return to school. (Vice News)

* Islamic State uses Taliban's own tactics to attack Afghanistan's new rulers (Reuters)

* Don’t isolate the Taliban, Pakistan urges (AP)

*  WHO urges international donors to resume Afghanistan health funding (Reuters)

 

* Taliban official: Strict punishment, executions will return -- 

One of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan said the hard-line movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public. 

(AP)

* Pressure Grows on U.S. Companies to Share Covid Vaccine Technology -- Moderna accepted $2.5 billion in taxpayer money to develop its Covid-19 vaccine. But officials in the U.S. and overseas are having trouble persuading the company to license its technology. (NYT)

*COVID-19 deaths have climbed to an average of more than 1,900 a day for the first time since early March, and experts say the virus is preying largely on the 71 million unvaccinated Americans. For health workers, the deaths — combined with misinformation and disbelief about the virus — have been “heart-wrenching, soul-crushing.” The nation saw 3,000 deaths a day back in December, but that was when almost no one was vaccinated. [AP]

* Moderna chief executive sees pandemic over in a year (Reuters)

* African leaders highlight vaccine inequity in UN speeches (AP)

* Every season except summer is getting shorter, a sign of trouble (WP)

* F.D.A. Authorizes Pfizer Booster Shots for Older and At-Risk Americans (NYT)

* Biden pledges to double U.S. donations of Pfizer vaccine to poor nations (WP)

* EPA to cut greenhouse gases thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide (WP)

* Flying Microchips The Size Of A Sand Grain Could Be Used For Population Surveillance (NPR)

* Privacy Reset: A guide to the important settings you should change now (WP)

* Wikimedia Foundation reaches $100 million Endowment goal (Wikimedia)

* Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws aimed at protecting the privacy of people seeking abortions, drawing a sharp contrast with Texas. One prohibits filming near an abortion clinic, while the other makes it easier to keep sensitive medical information confidential. (AP)

* Biden White House leans toward releasing information about Trump and Jan. 6 attack, setting off legal and political showdown (WP)

*Senate Republicans let the Violence Against Women Act's authorization expire in 2019 after they couldn't agree among themselves on what to put in a bill of their own. But now, the Senate may actually be close to introducing a bill to reauthorize it with support from both parties, writes Jennifer Bendery. [HuffPost]

* Paleontologists Determine Dinosaurs Were Killed By Someone They Trusted (The Onion)