The writing life (6)

A foreign correspondent I know tells the story of interviewing people in a Muslim country in 2000 about the U.S. presidential campaign. Did they favor George W. Bush or Al Gore? Bush. Why? Because Gore’s a Jew.

My colleague heard this answer again and again. When he asked why his interviewees falsely believed Gore was a Jew, they had a single answer: They’d read it on the internet.

The correspondent tells this story ruefully, as a cautionary tale about the dangers posed by the public’s growing reliance on the internet for news and information.

The other side of this perverse anecdote is what an amazing tool the internet can be. I was reminded of this as I worked the last couple of days on a story on a new book called The Reagan Diaries.

My idea was simple: Comb through the published diary for President Reagan’s entries on his encounters with Gordon Humphrey, a New Hampshire Republican who served in the U.S. Senate throughout the Reagan presidency. Then research the context of their encounters, call Humphrey for his recollections and write the story.

Most of the Oval Office conversations between Humphrey and Reagan focused on the Soviet war in Afghanistan, but there was also one about the MX missile. Although I was a newspaper editor during this entire period, I had no detailed memories of these issues and would not have relied on memory if I did.

Why did Reagan need to ask for Humphrey’s vote on the MX? Weren’t they both hawks? What was the issue that divided them? What was an MX missile anyway, and what became of the MX project?

Did Saudi Arabia support the Afghan resistance fighters known as the mujahedeen? Did the United States sell an AWACS plane to Pakistan? Was George Shultz still Reagan’s secretary of state late in his second term? What happened in Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew to pave the way for the Taliban’s coming to power?

In all these cases, I found the answers on the internet. I found them from reliable sources, and I double-checked them with other reliable sources. I can't even guess how difficult and time-consuming it would have been to find these answers in the pre-internet age, but I spent very little time answering the questions I thought readers would have for this story.

When I reached Humphrey, he said he would have trouble remembering the background on events that occurred 20 years ago. Because of the internet, I was able to give him background with confidence as we went along in the interview.

I don’t doubt the internet’s vast potential for evil and havoc. But as someone who worked for decades in journalism without it, I have to tell you it is extremely efficient in providing background for informed reporting and writing.

It’s all in how you use it.