History couples well with journalism, except when it doesn't. See Washington Post on Turkey quake - II

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

The Washington Post’s February 7 deep dive into the massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria tried to use a historical focus to provide context to contemporary events.

It tried and failed.

As I previously explained, the piece appeared in the generally excellent Today’s Worldview slot, which provides “analysis of the most important global story of the day”. The article started out well, referencing an Armenian chronicler’s account of a monstrous earthquake in the 12th century, which destroyed the city of Marash. The reader is then brought to understand — a sick feeling in the pit of their stomach — that a millennium later, on the site of Marash was Kahramanmaras, the city in southern Turkey where most buildings were reduced to rubble or badly damaged on February 6.

Newspapers have been steadily recuperating the past as an important part of their communicative armoury 

– Martin Conboy, Emeritus Professor of Journalism History

Thus far, history is addin…