It's A Big World Out There - And We're Ignoring It

Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times recently blogged about the disappearance of foreign correspondents at major American newspapers, and held out hope that a new user-generated site, Demotix, might help to fill the gap. The concept is interesting, and I'll keep an eye on it, but as Kristof should know better than anyone, there is no substitute for the seasoned, experienced, and perspicacious foreign correspondent. As an American, I find that the best writing about foreign affairs comes from those who not only know the places they're writing about intimately but who can also understand and explain the relevance of the "local news" there to a U.S. audience. That perspective is critical -- when there's so much to worry about at home, why should I care what's going on there? What does this mean to our economy, our security, our global interests?

While we live in a world of exploding outlets for expression, this is a need that I simply don't see being filled. The decline in international news coverage on TV and radio (with the limited exception of NPR and, in particular, BBC programming carried on NPR stations) is not surprising, given how consumers prefer to use those media. The decline in international coverage in print is inevitable, given the dismal economics of newspapers in the 21st century. An Internet business model to support high-quality, objective, critical international coverage has not emerged, and I don't know who's looking for one. 

There is some quality international coverage available if you go looking for it.  The BBC's website (free to you, than to the large TV taxes paid by U.K. residents) is probably the most comprehensive, and there is no better source for world news and analysis with an Anglo-American perspective than The Economist. And while there is no shortage of website aggregators of international news (I've looked at the MacArthur Foundation-funded curated website NewsTrust, for example), aggregations generally provide no context and relevance for an American reader -- even when the reports are in English, they are often culturally incomprehensible in the absence of a bridge-building correspondent.

About five years ago, Joan Kroc, philanthropist and heir to Ray Kroc's McDonald's Restaurants fortune, made a $225 million bequest to NPR that allowed the network to add several dozen news staff and institute a news fellows program. There's little doubt that the extra $15 million a year or so flowing into NPR's news operations has maintained and upgraded their quality.

After reading Kristof's piece, it occurred to me that we need someone of similar vision and generosity (and even greater means) to close the yawning news and information gap between America and the rest of the world.

I believe that we need a not-for-profit foreign correspondents guild (for lack of a better term) dedicated to explaining the world to us in America. 

This organization should have correspondents on every populated continent (I'll suggest 50 full-time professionals in total), who understand the politics and culture of the nations they cover as well as they understand ours.  The organization should have a lean administrative staff headed by someone with impeccable journalistic credentials paired with a solid appreciation of how the Internet influences the way we read and think.  

While the correspondents should write from the heart and with personality, there should be the highest possible premium on objectivity.  Opinion would be welcome, but ideology should not drive the enterprise.  These professionals would not be expected to be the first with news, but they should be the first with a solid, substantive interpretation of what the news means to an American audience.  And this organization's stories should be made available free of charge to every commercial and noncommercial news outlet that will have them, as well as the organization's own well-organized, noncommercial site.

Assuming this is a $100 million a year enterprise, it would require something on the order of a two billion dollar endowment.  That's ten times what Mrs. Kroc left to NPR -- pretty immense, and arguably not the first thing on many people's lists for "what we could do for society with two billion dollars."   But I beg to differ.  A network of solid information professionals, helping to interpret the world to Americans -- and putting the political, economic, social, environmental, medical, educational and other achievements and challenges faces by nations around the globe into a practical context for a U.S. audience -- could vastly improve our decision-making here at home and rebuild our sense of community with other nations... something that, as the last eight years have demonstrated, will be essential to our continued success as a leader in the world.

The next great capitalist who wants to use his or her bequest to change the world -- and America's role in it -- could do worse than to underwrite such a foreign correspondents' guild.