Some articles do more than inform. They challenge assumptions, expose uncomfortable truths and stay with us – which is why independent journalism needs room to publish them.
When sifting through the hundreds of possible pieces for P&I each week, a few always stand out.
I have been trying to work out what it is that makes them stay with me.
We apply the same criteria to all we consider: does the article advance debate? Is it newsworthy or relevant? Is it well written and dynamic? Does it bring a depth and context to an issue that others lack? Does it fill a gap – covering issues the mainstream shirk? All of P&I’s articles qualify in one of these categories, and, due to the richness of our growing author group, sometimes all of them.
So, there is a baseline. But what makes something special?
Sometimes, a piece is particularly shocking, or beautiful, or heartfelt. Stories like the one of church leaders who, facing almost certain death, refused to leave their churches and the people sheltering in them after Israel gave an evacuation order. Or like the one where leading Jewish public academic Robert Manne dug deep into his heart after the Bondi massacre.
But there are others I cannot shake – pieces that challenge long-held views by aligning facts in a way I cannot ignore.
One such this week was Adrian Rosenfeldt’s piece digging behind the psychology of the Nick Kyrgios versus Rafael Nadal debate, which for many of us has long been won by the charming, hard-working Spaniard. The piece opened my eyes to the driving anxiety behind Nadal’s play: what I had thought were those cute routines with his water bottle, shorts and so on, but which Rosenfeldt showed were really manifestations of a fear of failure. And, on the other side of the net, another revelation: perhaps Kyrgios was not the lazy, lairising playboy, but just a talented kid who wouldn’t submit to the factory line of professional tennis.
Rosenfeldt’s piece made me think about ambition and sacrifice, and how I form judgments about the behaviour of others.
Other articles make us confront uncomfortable realities.
This weekend, we publish – for the first time – a man who has dedicated his life to telling it how it is.
Bob Brown.
The Australian who has done more to open our eyes to the critical task of protecting our environment. He will argue that our emissions make us complicit in the Nepal catastrophe: a wake-up call we must not ignore.
We can publish pieces that challenge the status quo, that wake us up and tell uncomfortable truths, because we are not constrained by corporate or government backers.
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Catriona Jackson is the Chief Executive and Editor of Pearls and Irritations.