There is an Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo. People are dying. The official account is accurate and incomplete, and the missing parts are the ones that explain everything.
The version in circulation goes like this. There is an outbreak of Ebola in central Africa. Case numbers are climbing. The World Health Organization has declared an emergency. The risk to Western readers is low.
Each of those statements is accurate. Assembled, they form a story shaped to be skimmed and set down. The reporting that fills it in is harder to set down, and it is available to anyone who looks past the wire summary.
