Ask The Post

This Week: David Hoffman, assistant managing editor for Foreign, was online Wednesday, Nov. 9, at noon ET to discuss The Post's coverage of international news from its bureaus around the world.

The transcript follows.

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China: Dear Mr. Hoffman: How do you persuade your subjects to have their stories published with their names? Do you pay some of them?

David Hoffman: Hello everyone. Glad to be here and take your questions. Feel free to fire away. This is an important question. We strive to get people on the record, because we think it deepens authenticity and makes for a more transparent and original story. We often have to persuade people to allow us to use their names, and it is not easy. We never pay. Sometimes, we do allow people to speak anonymously. The newspaper has good guidelines about this and we adhere to them. I think they've recently been posted on the site, too.

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washingtonpost.com: Deep Background, Deep Controversy , ( Washington Post, Nov. 6, 2005 )

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Mount Vernon, Va.: Comment: I wish The Post had more coverage on Canada and the Canadian political situation. Why is there so little news about our close neighbor? There is a lot going on up there!

David Hoffman: We have a strong bureau there and care a lot about it. Sometimes we agonize over how much incremental coverage is right, compared to longer and more in-depth pieces. But it is good to know we have such interest, and we'll keep trying to do better.

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Wheaton, Md.: Are the riots in France really about racism or are they a deliberately planned event by Islamic jihadists?

David Hoffman: Everything we've seen so far suggests they are not such a planned event and there's a lot of spontaneous anger spilling out. We've been out on the streets talking to people -- and will do more.

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Saddle Brook, N.J.: Hello David,

Why The Post didn't publish about the U.S. army use of chemical Fallujah? Italian RAI showed last night, shouldn't Americans know more about it? In this documentary, U.S. soldiers openly admitted the use of white phosphate bombs and what is their impact on humans.

People here protects animals better than what this government is doing to humans, not terrorists. Would your grandmother allow it if properly inform of real facts?

David Hoffman: We wrote about this at the time -- see the page one story November 10, 2004 by Jackie Spinner.

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washingtonpost.com: U.S. Forces Battle Into Heart of Fallujah , ( Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2004 )

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Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Do you think that correspondents working overseas are more or less vulnerable to manipulation by outside groups (such as government) than those working in their home country?

David Hoffman: This is a good question, but I confess, I don't know how to measure manipulation. It comes in so many ways. More or less is hard to say. But there is certainly a distinction between correspondents working in their own country -- often with very good sources and a front-row seat on decision-making -- and foreign correspondents who have to work extra hard to see what's happening inside institutions. At the same time, we've seen that outsiders often have a clear, high-altitude view of events that insiders don't.

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Arlington, Va.: The World News section is the best section in The Washington Post. Please do not reduce international coverage or dumb it down. Thanks.

David Hoffman: Thanks, but we always think we can make it better. We're determined not to lose sight of the big, pulsating stories of our time, including the incredible challenge of covering the war in Iraq. We've been thinking a lot about how to cover transnational issues that are not unique to any one country or capital. We've also been striving to find human interest pieces at a time when the world does seem to be awash in violence, war and catastrophe. We recently started a new feature, appearing periodically, called Time Zones, in which we hope to capture a slice of life over a short period of time.

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Washington, D.C.:

Thanks for taking questions.

Why does The Post have so many more correspondents in Europe than in Africa? I believe there are only two in all of Africa. Wouldn't another Emily Wax be a better investment than having six reporters in Western Europe? And (I know The Post is worried about budgets) cheaper to boot!

David Hoffman: Good question -- one thing I can promise every reader is that we ask these kinds of questions a thousand times a day. There are so many fascinating and urgent places we'd love to be, Africa included. But we just can't be everywhere. We pick and choose constantly. Often we opt for a more in-depth assignment than an incremental news story. But at other times, as in recent developments in France and in the war in Iraq, the news is compelling. We try to do both, and do them as well as possible, to reach levels of depth and understanding not available elsewhere. And sometimes we just ache over not being able to cover a good story.

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Arlington, Va.: I have a complaint/observation about the reporting from France. The terminology that's been used in U.S. papers, The Post included, to describe the areas that the rioters are from is poorly chosen. These things are public housing apartment buildings, on the outskirts of the major cities. I've seen them described as "suburbs", "council estates" (obviously a British wirefeed that wasn't edited), etc. I've lived there, I know what they are, but Americans without first-hand knowledge are being awfully confused by the shorthand that's in place.

David Hoffman: This is a good point. I agree that suburbs does not work well, nor the British expression. What would you suggest?

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Charleston, W. Va.: I've been an avid reader of the Post for nearly 30 years, and I'm very upset at the downward trends for newspaper readership and at the growing body of evidence that our citizens are simply neither informed nor do they care about issues around the world. I realize this is an impossible question, but I'd like to read your views on what these negative trends mean for the continued ability of our major national news organizations to afford the quality and quantity of coverage we simply need to survive in the global market we live in.

David Hoffman: Yes, impossible. But here's a hopeful thought about news. I mentioned earlier that we are trying hard to come to grips with transnational trends -- pollution, proliferation and others -- that leap over national boundaries. If you think about it, the idea of globalization is not just a figure of speech in business and finance, but a description of the world we live in. We can't easily isolate ourselves from global warming trends or bioweapons threats. We can't tune out Iraq or China. Indeed, news, too, is increasingly globalized. So, to be optimistic, there should be a lot of demand for a long time for the kind of journalism that helps sort through these fast-moving events and trends from so far away. I hope so.

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Arlington, Va.: Well, how about public housing high-rise slums? That's what they are. Yeah, it's another 20 characters chewed out of the news hole, but it's necessary. Or have it tucked into the caption of the maps.

David Hoffman: I am not worried about a couple more words. But are they all slums? Is that also a tricky word; some might not be.

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Charlottesville, Va.: Kudos on the excellent recent coverage of Syria, Lebanon, and today's article on the exiled Muslim Brotherhood. Can we get more in-depth on fugitive Radovan Karadzic? I feel like he was covered during the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in July, but haven't seen much investigative reporting since. Thanks!

David Hoffman: Certainly a good suggestion here, thanks.

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New York, N.Y.: Why so little coverage from Latin America in The Post? It seems as if you have half of your foreign correspondents in Europe.

David Hoffman: Did you see Monte Reel's story this weekend about the reason for Latin American leaders' unhappiness with the United States? As I mentioned previously, there's never enough coverage of many places. We are hungry for more from Latin America and dedicated to getting more. We'll soon have a new correspondent in Mexico City, and some additional eyes and ears on the ground in the New Year.

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Slums, etc.: Well, all the ones I drove or walked through were (take your pick): dilapidated, depressed, scruffy, menacing, etc. Cabrini Green in Chicago wasn't technically a slum, but it's as close an equivalent as we have in the US. How would you have described that in the 80's?

David Hoffman: Thanks for those good ideas. Anyone else out there got a suggestion?

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Miami, Fla.: Any thoughts on the election in Azerbaijan?

David Hoffman: Peter Finn's good accounts of election night suggest there were serious irregularities. The international observers said the same. You might also find interesting The Post's editorial on the topic today.

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washingtonpost.com: Azerbaijan Flunks the Test , ( Washington Post, Nov. 9, 2005 )

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Charleston, S.C.: Mr. Hoffman,

Can you enlighten us on how The Post decides how to define certain groups or movements. Specifically, the use of the term insurgents.

David Hoffman: This is a very good and difficult question. There are not easy answers -- I wish there were. We often find in the process of telling readers about events that we need to characterize and shorthand. We struggle to find the right descriptions when we do that. Our rule of thumb is to look for words that are as precise as we can make them, often without knowing details. We seek to avoid labels. For example, in the foreign pages, editors attempt to avoid using labels like left and right -- they have a very different meaning abroad than they do at home. Instead of such simple labels, we sometimes try to lay out details of what a group or individual stands for. If you take a look at Monte Reel's piece this weekend on the Latin leaders, you'll see what I mean -- trying to explain what people stand for rather than just call them left, or right.

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washingtonpost.com: Vote in Azerbaijan Declared Fraudulent , ( Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2005 )

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Wake Forest, N.C.: So are you saying that ONE story on the horrific use of white phosphorus and/or napalm on the Iraqi city of Fallujah by the American Military using American tax dollars and in the name of Americans is sufficient? Have you seen the pictures? Did you watch the Italian documentary? You really have got to be kidding. No wonder people are turning away from newspapers if this is the kind of follow up we get.

David Hoffman: No, but I am saying -- we were there first. Was RAI television on the front lines last November 9 in the middle of that fighting? We were. I applaud documentary film makers. It's also nice that people have the time to write books, and review events of the past. We also do a lot of reconstruction in our journalism. But first and foremost, when this happened, Post reporters were eyewitnesses and wrote about it. And that's something valuable, and special, and one of the reasons why newspapers are vital.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm a former correspondent in the Middle East and Eastern Europe for another news organization.

What language skills does The Post require of its correspondents?

Posting correspondents abroad is very expensive. How much pressure are you folks on the news side under on cost issues?

What's the backstory on the phrase, "Washington Post Foreign Service." I always thought it sounded too much like a diplomatic designation.

Thanks!

David Hoffman: We strongly encourage correspondents to acquire language skills, and in some cases we help them learn. It is hard work, and the need for such skills varies from place to place. But I've always felt you can get a better understanding of a place -- and a better interview, too -- when you can speak to someone in their own language. The newspaper has made a huge commitment to overseas news, and it is on display in our pages constantly. Just look at the reports in today's paper -- from Sudan, China, France, Iraq, South Korea, about Syria and North Korea, among others, and you get a sense of our commitment.

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Arlington, Va.: Because so many of the stories come from nations we al might not be familiar with, I'd like to see more maps in the international news. Maybe even a thumbnail globe next to a story, showing where the country is. Keep up the good work.

David Hoffman: Good idea.

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Chicago, Ill.: David:

In light of Prime Minster Blair's stinging defeat on the terror bill, do you expect Gordon Brown's expected ascension to the PM spot to accelerate? Thank you and I continue to be an admirer of The Post's foreign coverage.

David Hoffman: I won't dare venture a guess about the timing of British politics. Blair has been quite a survivor. But the dynamic is there, no question.

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Vinzel, Switzerland: I would like your take on the lack of media coverage when foreign dignitaries visit the U.S. Is it too difficult to explain the visits, are too many foreign dignitaries, or is it plain lack of interest on the part of readers?

David Hoffman: There are plenty of visitors, and we can't cover them all. But you'll see news stories and also keep an eye on Nora Boustany's Diplomatic Dispatches column.

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David Hoffman: One last thought, not connected to a specific question -- we are interested in readers' views and you can email them or write. We realize the world of information is changing fast, that there are many more sources of news and data than ever before. We want to hear about some of the issues raised today: What parts of the world deserve more coverage? How to define groups and places? What continent and globe-spanning themes would you want to know more about? Thanks.

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