Preparing for a possible war story

Many readers, I suspect, are trying to mentally prepare themselves for war in Iraq, regardless of how they feel about the wisdom of a US attack.

Those of us in the news business have been preparing ourselves, too. And while we approach such events with a certain degree of professional detachment, this is also a time of soul- searching among journalists.

I think that is because this is not just another story. Not even just another war story. This conflict finds journalists a little unsteady on their feet because, in the 16 months since Sept. 11, the rules of waging war have changed. Attacking a nation preemptively to forestall a threat has gone from the margins of US policy to its center. That shift means war and peace decisions will rely more heavily on judgment and best guesses, just the sort of squishy criteria that make journalists suspicious and insecure.

The Jan. 27 issue of Editor and Publisher highlights this moment of journalistic angst. Many Americans, the article asserts, feel largely unprepared for a war with Iraq and many in the news business are wondering if they themselves are partly to blame for not being aggressive or thorough enough in reporting the story.

That sort of self-questioning is going on at the Monitor, too. It should. We will be better for it.

Of course, readers are the ultimate judge of our work. But a discussion of our goals may provide useful context.

We at the Monitor start with a feeling of responsibility to a mandate set out by the founder of this newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy. "The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind," she wrote in 1908.

Those words take on extra import when the event in question quite literally involves massive potential injury to many people. But the founder's words are not a clear-cut antiwar formula. Use of force in Iraq, advocates would argue, is in order to prevent greater potential injury to more people later.

In any case, while many at the Monitor undoubtedly have their own views about a possible conflict, we are decidedly not trying to answer for readers the question whether the US should or shouldn't take military action. Rather, we are trying in our news coverage to give readers the tools for making up their own minds.

While the founder's statement isn't meant as a formula, its spirit acts as a test of the motivation for all we do. Are we motivated in our story selection, composition, and treatment by a desire to bless, rather than injure?

We see great value, and blessing, in fostering understanding. That means getting as close to the truth as we can on issues of consequence. It also means giving that "truth" a sense of context and proportion. With a founding statement that includes the words "all mankind," we see context as meaning a scope that is global.

The pursuit of understanding requires asking the right questions. And since Sept. 11, the Monitor has sought to isolate and explore these three:

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