In The Compromise*, Sergei Dovlatov recalls his time as a journalist in the USSR. I haven’t finished reading it, but the book consists of 11 stories of how journalistic integrity can be compromised in small ways, to avoid being thrown out of your job — or worse.

The tone is set right at the beginning, when the author writes:

For example, an article he has written is returned by the editor because he presented a list of countries in alphabetical order. What’s wrong with that, you may ask. The “correct” order is to list the People’s Democracies first, then neutral countries, then, finally, capitalist ones.

Another time, he has written a piece to help children learn the Estonian alphabet. In it, a little girl meets a beast, who speaks in her own tongue, Estonian. He is told to make the beast speak in a European language — and is even fined for his “mistake”.

These examples are, of course, from the USSR, but the important thing about these stories is what they are NOT examples of: fake news. If the order of items in a list is odd in some way, does that indicate sloppy writing or is the writer trying to convey a particular point of view without being obvious about it?

It’s worth noting that even the way a headline is written can affect what people see in, and remember from, the article, as reported in the New Yorker.

All this means that readers, especially where current affairs journalism is concerned (but in other fields too) need to be active readers, always evaluating what has been written, and comparing it with articles on the same subject elsewhere.

It doesn’t exactly equate to leisurely reading, but perhaps it’s better than being hoodwinked or manipulated in some way.

See also:

Review of Trust Me, I’m Lying

*Amazon affiliate link.