How The Economist covers the world
I’ve been reading the Economist since I was a kid cutting charts out of it for school projects. I pay for their product happily, and they’re a shining example of what I’d love to see more newspapers and magazines become.
.. They’re also one of the few periodicals that, when I read about something I’m pretty knowledgeable about, doesn’t fall flat.
.. I used to read The Economist and it made me feel very informed of the world until one day I realized something. It came about because I happened to know a lot of prior detail about the article I was reading about South Africa and although I could not fault the facts listed and the depth of the article, the end result was that it was just plain wrong. The shocking thing for me was that if I didn’t know more about the area then I would have been convinced that I knew enough about the subject to form an informed opinion. I believe the trick to their magazine is to create subjective (one sided) articles but to give the impression that they are objective by offering up extensive research. Kind of like a scientist who only publishes results that suit their agenda. Those results may be accurate, detailed and impressive but that’s not the whole picture.
.. I want to know why the villains (people, corporations, governments) they attack justify their actions. Give me a soup of conflicting ideas to ponder instead of cherry picked truths.
.. It shouldn’t be your only news source, but they’ve never pretended to be dedicated to objectivity like Reuters or something.
.. What I don’t like at Economist the most is the divine-like inner voice they are using to report on a totally controversial area in a totally foreign topic and choose a side as if it’s very easy to choose sides. For example, you’re a banker reader in London, and they give you bundled, consumption-ready opinion about why Mr X in LaLaLand is a better match for governing the fiscal politics and not Ms Y.
It’s as if they are ruling the world rather than doing journalism.
.. When I was at University two individuals I knew, in different countries, WERE the Economist Intelligence Unit for those (small) countries. They were smart kids but they didn’t really have a clue. They were just really good at digesting a lot of media and once they were EIU had the credibility to pick up the phone to some pundits, who liked to see themselves quoted.
.. Indeed they are notorious for the youth of their staff, and it is occasionally glaringly embarrassing. The writing is mostly of high quality. But they can get smart kids to work for them because it’s a great name to have on your resume and they work can be demanding… I can echo your comment: I was at a dinner party in London back in the mid 1980s and my host’s gf worked for the EIU covering east Asia. She was an oxbridge graduate in her mid 20s. She said she couldn’t understand why so many people in China, HK, SG etc seemed so anti-Japanese. That said a lot about the UK educational system!