The Tribune

AMERICAN journalist and author David Simon, better known as a writer and producer of The Wire, captures the role of curiosity in human endeavour: “The why is what makes journalism an adult game. The why is what makes policy coherent and useful.

“The why is what transforms bureaucrats and foot soldiers and political leaders into viable instruments of rational and affirmative change. The why is everything and without it, the very suggestion of human progress becomes a cosmic joke.”

A developing child learns by constantly asking, “Why?” “Why does the sun disappear at night?” “Why do guineps only appear in the summer?” “Why do I have ten toes?” And the older we become: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”

Curiosity is insatiable, lasting a lifetime if we are fortunate. Alas, the older we grow, the more rigid we often become, afraid to grow, clinging desperately to our shibboleths, certainties and fundamentalisms of all stripes.

Collectively, here at home, we are often consumed by a wasteland of incuriosity, an indifference and sometimes hostility to knowledge and facts, often little regard for greater insight and understanding, disinterest in an encyclopaedia of whys.

This lack of curiosity permeates society, including, egregiously, politics, journalism and religion, whose leaders have a civic and ethical obligation to be thoughtful and informed, but who are just as often stuck in the wasteland.

A recent study discussed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website noted the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine was higher in countries with a well-established public broadcasting network viewed by the majority of residents of a jurisdiction.

The study concluded that in countries like the UK and Canada, residents were more likely to take the vaccines because of the BBC and CBC respectively, which did an excellent job of providing accurate and detailed information while countering fake news and false information.

One can only imagine how better, sustained and more detailed coverage by media houses in The Bahamas and by ZNS and the Bahamas Information Services could have helped to improve vaccine uptake in the country.

In countries like the United States the plethora of false information from Donald Trump and myriad right wing media outlets fuelled vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine conspiracies, which also affected much of the region, including The Bahamas.

A good many of the journalism products we consume at home and on American cable television, is not “an adult game”. These products lack maturity, the insight of experience and the wisdom of study.

There are a number of informative American cable news programmes, including those of Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria on CNN, which few Bahamian journalists apparently watch.

These programmes are enjoyable and informative because their hosts are experienced and they seek informed guests covering fields such as the arts, ecology, business, archaeology, entertainment, politics, fashion, cosmology and other areas in which various experts help to answer our whys and further excite our curiosity streams.

But most of the cable fare on Fox News, MSNBC and the domestic CNN are opinion entertainment programmes offering little insight or greater context of the constantly “breaking news”, which is typically the same news that a revolving panel of talking heads pick apart show after show.

There are differences between and on the cable news networks. CNN and MSNBC do attempt to give viewers the facts, albeit through certain ideological prisms. There are also a few Fox News programmes which attempt to do likewise.

Fox News opinion shows are entirely different beasts, riddled with sensationalism and specious analysis that helped to fuel Donald Trump’s endless conspiracies on everything from race to the results of the last presidential election.

Thankfully, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, the BBC, PBS and the CBC offer greater insight, balance and perspective. Again, few Bahamian journalists appear interested in these sources, not to mention the many other excellent print and podcast sites that would enrich journalism in The Bahamas.

If a journalist is not better informed or well-read, he or she continues to cover or to opine on the very same topics week after week, the low-hanging fruits of which are certain crime stories, the gotcha political stories and the war of words between political combatants.

Much of the news coverage feels like the film Groundhog Day, minus the upbeat ending when the weatherman in the movie finally breaks his monotonous cycle.

The best political journalism offers informed comparisons and deep perspective, including the many whys of policy, personalities and parties. The veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour eschews the false equivalence mindset, noting her job is to be truthful and to provide context, nuance and insight.

Referring to earlier media coverage on the global climate emergency, Amanpour stressed: “We cannot continue the old paradigm – let’s say like over global warming, where 99.9 percent of the empirical scientific evidence is given equal play with the tiny minority of deniers.”

Nuance is as necessary in the development of public policy as it is in good storytelling and journalism. It is all too easy to simplistically claim “a pox on both your houses”. Sometimes this may be the case depending on the matter at hand. But quite often it is not the case.

The easy reach for the false and unsustainable equivalence, such as “Peter is no better than Paul” or empty assertions about political cannibalism absent a greater appreciation of Bahamian history and comparative politics internationally, makes for sensational but non substantive editorializing and commentary.

The UK magazine New Statesman once reported: “After taking breakfast with Blair, visiting Brown in Downing Street and meeting Cameron in parliament, [Barack] Obama is said to have given the following verdict: Blair was ‘sizzle and substance’; Brown was ‘substance’; Cameron was merely ‘sizzle’.”

Obama, an exceptional writer and thinker, appreciated nuance in describing fellow politicians. He did not harbour the disingenuous and intellectually lazy false equivalence of all or most politicians being the same.

Here at home, there is a story that made the rounds in the Bahamian press which became mind-numbingly annoying and ridiculous. It was emblematic of certain stories which are reported absent greater perspective, context and facts.

The story, which seemed to develop into a sort of meme with the retelling, was that of certain individuals in the medical profession who kept claiming that the Government did not consult them on the COVID-19 vaccines, as if the consultation of these particular individuals was necessary or important for the roll-out of the vaccines.

Never mind that the National Vaccine Consultative Committee was headed by Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, one of the leading regional experts in her field. The Committee included a representative from the Medical Association of The Bahamas, the Chief Medical Officer and a range of medical professionals.

Moreover, there was widespread information on vaccines available online and at the fingertips of every medical professional in the world who wanted to read about the various vaccines.

Some stories are so ridiculous and so unnewsworthy that they should not be reported. When certain stories are reported, context should be offered along with greater details that add perspective and balance. This requires discernment.

Many stories require greater restraint. In 2019, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin offered this mea culpa: “I got into the trap of false equivalence during the 2016 campaign. Comparing Donald Trump’s record of ethical problems with Hillary’s emails lent a misleading impression.”

Toobin further declared: “I talked about the emails here at CNN, I wrote about it in The New Yorker. And I think I paid too much attention to them and I regret that.”

It is easy to get caught in the pack and in a herd mentality. It is much more rewarding to think more broadly and with more curiosity about the whys others are incapable of or chose not to explore, which is as true for politicians, pastors and journalists.