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To clarify a few things: 1. This was not an article from the Washington Post newspaper. It was from their online blog group. In many news outfits this is a signal that the output can be in a less formal tone/pass a different set of editorial hurdles.

2. A maxim in the American newspaper business has historically been to write to an 8th grade (12 and 13 year old) audience. They have historically felt that the American newspaper buying audience is ignorant.

3. Ukrainian politics does not receive very much coverage from the mainstream news organizations in the United States. For instance, cnn.com only has 1 story on their front page about the Ukraine and it is well below the fold. Foxnews.com has 1 story but it is headlined with highly sensational text.

So in short, yes I suspect a large part of the United States news paper reading public could use a refresher on the Ukraine protests.

Curiously, in your country how much coverage do you receive of the politics of Texas? How much about the Philippines?

> So the target audience is: Americans who do not know anything about Ukraine. My initial assumption would be that this is a small group. However, the average weekday circulation of The Washington Post is above 400,000.

Keep in mind, there are presently (per Wikipedia) some 206 sovereign states. Excluding the numerous other states that have come and gone throughout history. I would expect, for any given country, most Americans to be ignorant of its history outside of those we have closer historical or geographical ties to (I'd expect more Americans to know the history of England, for instance, than of Bolivia; or Canada versus Nigeria).

So the target audience is: Americans who do not know anything about Ukraine. My initial assumption would be that this is a small group.

Your initial assumption is incorrect.

In any case, one of the great things about online news vs. newspapers is that an article like this doesn't steal page space from another. You can write this and a much deeper dive and release them both.

The only thing most Americans know about Ukraine is that it was former USSR. I actually tried talking about the protests to about 10 different people this past weekend, and none had even heard about them.

> Are Americans so ignorant to justify the publication of such an article?

Yes. They will also uncritically read everything what is written there.

Hard to tell because of the written means, but I hope you are being ironic.

I guess you refer to "1. What is Ukraine? Ukraine – not "the Ukraine."

Whoever got stuck there will miss the rest of the article which is quite good. If you actually got stuck there, please avoid claiming what others are.

Disclaimer: not an American.

Yes, I mostly refer to that first question. I did not get stuck there. I believe you misunderstood my post.

I do not claim Americans are ignorant — I was asking a question anyway, so not claiming anything.

I believe that, by publishing such a basic article, The Washington Post is claiming Americans are ignorant. I am trying to understand that particular phenomenon: why would a respectable newspaper, made for educated people, publish an article intended to the ignorant?

Like you admitted yourself, you also didn't know everything from the article. So your added claim:

"2. The article explains a situation by giving a basic history lesson, and does not contain any new or exclusive information."

Doesn't hold in my opinion. The article is more than "basic" for anybody not following Ukraine permanently.

Still can I agree with you if you consider the article tone a bit insulting to the reader. I find it a strange etiquette, openly writing to the reader as he's "too simple." But I believe enough readers consider it a joke, exactly on the topic "most Americans don't know anything about the World."

To be fair, I wrote "new or exclusive", not "unknown to me".

The "strange etiquette" you mention is exactly what I was referring to. Except that, to me, it did not feel like a joke, so I wanted to be sure — I am probably not enough used to some aspects of American culture.

It is one of the maxims of US media.

"No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."

H. L. Mencken, "Notes on Journalism"

Personally, I think that this rule being taken seriously has done more damage for US culture than just about anything else.

Because even educated people aren't educated in every area of knowledge. Your average American newspaper reader doesn't know too much about Ukraine. That's not a good or a bad things, just a fact. Much like I don't expect an average European newspaper reader to know too much about Kentucky or Paraguay.

And in the service of serving the audience, providing some background in an approachable listicle format is quite useful. Especially considering that many readers probably know that Ukraine is in the midst of turmoil, but they may not understand the root causes.