First in a series of two stories

Asheville resident and former journalist and diplomat Elizabeth Colton addressed “Diplomacy in Troubled Times” on Oct. 22 at the Country Club of Asheville.

She spoke for 30 minutes, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer period.  About 100 people attended.

“Today’s big stories — Ebola, ISIS, Russia in the Ukraine — are all big diplomatic stories,” Colton said. “They all require diplomatic solutions.

“I’m going to be comparing diplomacy and news. They are connected in many ways that many people may not realize.”

Colton began by noting, “At the conclusion of the hostage crisis (in Iran in 1979), right after the hostages were released, the entire news business kind of went into a slump.

“The news execs were saying, ‘We’ve run out of money.’ So we were there twidding our thumbs. I was there, in London, covering for ABC news. Then suddenly, President (Ronald) Reagan was shot and there was a flurry of news activity,” followed by another slump. 

She also noted a similar rising and falling pattern in the media’s coverage of breaking news, such as the shooting of a pope or an uprising in the Middle East. 

“I remember the morning in 1988... I went into the office. It was a very boring day. I told Peter Jennings I would be going to a funeral that day... Afterward, I learned that (Egyptian) President (Anwar) Sadat was shot. I said, ‘I missed the flight.’ Again, the news went on” and on, she said.

Colton then emphasized, “For people in the news business, it has to be exciting news. It has to be dramatic news to get the stories out there. At the same time, I’m going to show why it’s of value to diplomacy,” she said, referring to the news cycle.

She said the dictionary definition of diplomacy is “the conduct of international relations by nations... and it shows it is an international, nonviolent way to resolve problems.

“It’s very important to think of foreign and domestic policy as being intertwined. I’d argue almost everyday in almost all of our domestic policies... Ferguson, Mo., certainly had an international component....

“Diplomacy, of course, is bureaucratic. Therefore, it’s very slow-moving and plodding. Diplomacy is very top-down. It’s hierarchical, but perhaps that’s by necessity.

“Diplomacy also needs to be ongoing. It can’t just stop and focus on one side of the world. There’s a natural inclination for diplomacy not to act fast.” Colton noted that the news media operates in direct contrast.

“There’s been much written about the ‘CNN Effect,’ as if stories in the media had an impact on foreign or national policy.” With a hint of sarcasm, she added, “as if that never happened before.”

Colton added, “Diplomacy has to go in all directions, trying to avert crises in advance. If it averts (crises), diplomacy gets no credit.

“By contrast, the news business is, first and foremost, a business. In the news business, very much like the military and diplomacy in some ways, the resources determine the limits of the coverage.”

In listing some of the latest big news events, Colton said, “We had Russia (entering) in the Ukraine ... China in the South China Sea and in the Japan Sea, climate change — and Ebola was beginning to come along.

“Some people ask, ‘Why did we have to hear (from the cable TV networks) for so long about the jetliner lost in the Indian Ocean?’

“Once the news companies decide to send everybody to cover something — all of that costs a lot of money. Before they do that, they have to make a decision on whether a story will sustain those resources. Once they send all those resources out there, then they will leave them there.

“In the American news business, there’s an assumption that Americans can’t cope with complexity,” Colton said, prompting some laughter from the crowd, “so (the idea is) don’t show them any nuance. Don’t show them someone bad, who they think is good, or vice versa.”