Writing Quote by John Pomfret

American journalism likes to sell itself as a roaming witness: parachute in, report the facts, move on. Pomfret punctures that fantasy with the blunt image of “cultural baggage” being “plopped down” wherever reporters land. The phrase isn’t just self-critique; it’s a diagnosis of how power travels disguised as objectivity. “Baggage” implies weight you didn’t choose but still carry, inherited assumptions about democracy, individualism, capitalism, race, religion, even what counts as “news.” And “it follows us around” suggests the real trick: you can change the setting without changing the frame.

The line “that’s just a fact of life” does double duty. It’s humility on the surface, but also a warning against the comfortable newsroom ritual of confessing bias and then proceeding as if confession absolves it. Pomfret isn’t arguing for perfect neutrality; he’s arguing that the default American vantage point is an active ingredient in the story. It shapes which sources feel credible, which emotions read as “rational,” which conflicts get translated into familiar U.S. narratives (freedom vs. tyranny, modernity vs. tradition), and which complexities get edited out for audiences back home.

Contextually, this lands in the era of global reporting where American outlets often cover foreign places under the shadow of U.S. geopolitical influence. The subtext is an ethical challenge: if your passport and your publication carry imperial gravitational pull, your job isn’t to pretend you’re weightless. It’s to account for the weight - on the page.