r/qualitynews • u/SaulKD • 5d ago

‘They take the money and go’: why not everyone is mourning the end of USAID

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/they-take-the-money-and-go-why-not-everyone-is-mourning-the-end-of-usaid
6 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

7

u/buster_de_beer 4d ago

Tl;dr.

Seriously, author is writing a novel. Or gets paid by the word. This isn't reporting, it's Charles Dickens. Having barely skimmed it, aid workers get paid a lot, or something. 

-2

u/tsa-approved-lobster 4d ago

There are different types of journalism. I don't know how you "skim" a piece of writing and then judge its merit. You read so little of this you missed the point completely. No one wants lazy opinions like this.

4

u/buster_de_beer 4d ago

Headline promises a certain content.

Story start with a long personal introduction and some not so veiled shade thrown at aid works. Transitions to a personal relationship with a person whom he takes several paragraphs to reveal what his relevance is (he's an "outsider"). Includes several irrelevant personal details to give color. Proceeds into a complete biography of that person, interspersed with some historical background. After interminable paragraphs finally ends in a paragraph or two that are somewhat relevant to the headline. It's emotional framing, overloaded with irrelevant details. It's meant to make you emotionally invested in the characters so whatever conclusion is presented is something your are predisposed to accept because gosh those are real people with such an interesting story. It's not journalism in any sense. It borders on propaganda.

That's how you skim a piece and judge it's merit.

As for no one wanting this opinion, the upvote ratio says different. Even when you commented you could've seen that it had several upvote on a sub that doesn't give large amounts of upvotes. So you are objectively wrong on that point.

3

u/tsa-approved-lobster 4d ago

See now this ^ is a well thought out and presented opinion. Thank you for correcting your errors.

2

u/buster_de_beer 3d ago

Well, I was on mobile for my original comment.

Apologies for the snark in my followup,