Are Dutch reporters more enterprising than their U.S. counterparts? This question came to mind three months ago when a friend drew my attention to an article in The Correspondent, a subscription-funded Dutch digital platform for independent journalism.

The story, headlined “Shell Knew: Oil giant’s 1991 film warned of climate change danger,” was preceded by a summary stating that the Shell oil company knew for more than a quarter of a century about the dangers posed by fossil fuels, as proved by the 1991 educational film “Climate of Concern,” produced by Shell and obtained by The Correspondent.

The film “warned that the company’s own product could lead to extreme weather, floods, famines and climate refugees, and noted that the reality of climate change was ‘endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists.’ ” The Guardian picked up the story by Jelmer Mommers and provided further reporting by Damian Carrington.

More recently, my Dutch-born wife came across a two-part series (in English) produced by Vara, a Dutch public broadcasting channel, titled “The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump: the Russians” – 80 minutes of an absorbing, far-ranging, well-documented pursuit of the truth concerning the president’s links with a range of shady characters.

Neither my wife nor I have seen anything as substantial and probing on this crucial subject on American television. (For those interested, the link is: http://tinyurl.com/lyg2anm.)

Jon Swan

Yarmouth

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