The Guardians Oliver Holmes describes his quest for positive news in one of journalisms most notoriously difficult beats
I had pretzels and a beer ready to pop. It was after 10pm and I was watching a live feed of mission control. An Israeli-built spacecraft was approaching the lunar surface and due to touch down within minutes. It was a straightforward good news story – the first privately funded attempt to land on the moon.
Flight engineers had their eyes glued to screens and I was listening to one talking through the details in Hebrew. Then, amid the technical jargon, I heard a jolting phrase in English: “Not OK”.
Crap, I thought. Can’t one sleep-deprived reporter get a break?
I had just covered a gruelling election that everyone seemed to agree was bitterly divisive, regardless of whom they supported. Benjamin Netanyahu won a fifth term with help from far-right allies despite three looming corruption indictments he dismissed as a “witch-hunt”. His election campaign was also condemned for anti-Arab scaremongering.
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