Journalese of the Day: Speculation and opinion as news reporting

I wonder if journalism schools have given up teaching that opinion and speculation should be left to the editorial pages and have no place in news stories. Newspaper editors obviously don’t give a damn. This AP story, datelined Bratislava, Slovakia, June 2, 2016, under the Boston Globe headline ” EU’s new crises raise questions about what more can be done,” is based on what “appears” to be, with “many… seeming” what “might be,” while questions are raised amid generalizations galore.

“Today, the UK appears to be in virtual quarantine out of fear that its anti-European streak might be contagious.

“Though the crises today may be different — Europe’s failure to manage a surge of refugee arrivals, Greece’s debt mountain, and future in the shared euro currency — they raise the same questions about how to make the EU relevant to people, whether they be in Malta or Finland or Germany.

“Even to many in the 28-nation bloc, Europe seems remote. There are no ‘European nationals,’ and the citizens of Europe distrust distant Brussels even more than their own governments.”

-Robert Skole