Doc Searls Weblog

You may have noticed there is a war going on. I’m not here to cover it. I’m here to cover, or at least visit, stories about it.

See, stories themselves are a problem, both in human nature (we love and live stories) and in journalism, which feeds and is fed on the human appetite for stories, all of which have three elements:

1. Character—a person, country, cause, team, player, whatever, that one might have feelings about (love, hate, anything but disinterest or indifference)
2. Problem—a situation that causes or is comprised of conflict or struggle
3. Movement—whether forward, backward, or sideways, it must maintain interest and at least hint toward a conclusion, even if one never comes

War cranks all that stuff up to eleven. As General Patton put it, “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so.” (Bonus link.)

I’ve written about the story’s problem for journalism in all of these:

• On two story businesses (January 30, 2008)
• Story vs. Reality (May 5, 2008)
• The story none dare tell (May 7, 2008)
• Where Journalism Fails (July 23, 2019)
• Stories vs. Facts (October 12, 2023)
• This Thing is Bigger Than Journalsim (April 20, 2024)
• A Better Way to Do News (August 15, 2024)
• What are Stories? (January 11, 2025)
• How Facts Matter (January 14, 2025)
• The Blame Game (January 19, 2025)
• Total News (March 1, 2025)

Among other places. A common thread: facts, while good to have, aren’t required. In fact, a story might be more compelling if it’s just about your most or least favorite character, or characters. For maximum engagement, it might be best not to use facts at all. Or to use fake ones. As Scott Adams put it, “Facts don’t matter. What matters is how much we hate the person talking.” Daniel Kahnemann agreed: “Facts don’t matter, or they matter much less than people think.”

With those framings in mind, here are some sources you might want to visit:

• Reuters/World
• APnews.com
• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• Washington Post
• Haaretz
• AlJazeera
• BBC
• Wired
• Fox News
• NPR
• MSNow
• CNN
• DemocracyNow!
• Bluesky: q=iran
• Threads: q=iran
• X (née Twitter): q=iran
• Instagram: q=iran
• Facebook: q=iran

And some stories:

• Wired: X Is Drowning in Disinformation Following US and Israeli Attack on Iran
• WBUR: Fresh, stale, or politics? The Melania documentary’s Rotten Tomatoes score, explained. Relevance: Melania gets 11% (very bad) on the Tomatometer (critics) and 98% on the Popcornmeter (audience). See the #1 story element above.
• WSJ: What’s Really at Stake in the Fight Between Anthropic and the Pentagon

Some of the above involve paywalls. I apologize on their behalf. Bonus link, from Dan Gillmor, long ago.