Three blogs I'd like to write but don't have the time

1.  Fake Scandal Real Scandal: It is the greatest American pastime to be cynical about big bureaucracies and individuals in power.  Much of this cynicism is well justified.  A lot of it isn't.  Scandals about abuse of power, money or position sell newspapers and increase viewership and listenership.  These stories pander to an illusive human characteristic that makes us skeptical of others, especially others of a different social, racial or ethnic class--an "us vs. them" mentality.  This is why 60 Minutes, which has historically exposed some great scandals, is probably the most successful TV show in history.  But the excess demand for scandalous stories combined with strategic political gamesmanship means that many so-called scandals are fake.  Some news outlets are better at selling fake scandals than others and some people are more susceptible to falling for fake scandals than others.  Then, of course, there are the real scandals, some of which never do get reported.  If I had infinite time and infinite resources I would love to write a blog that dug into scandals to discern which ones are real, which ones are fake, and uncover the real scandals that get too little attention.

 2.  Who's Got the Inside Scoup: In Washington journalism, it's all about getting the salacious details about the lives and dealings of the politically powerful.  Status is measured by how close one gets to the West Wing.  Since access is valuable to journalists it usually comes at a price.  For big time journalists from big-time venues and audiences, politicians/insiders may value of the exposure more than the journalist values the access, but this is rare.  In most cases journalists must tacitly or explicitly offer something in return for access, like selling the insider's viewpoint or personal agenda.  This tit for tat biases the news in ways that can be difficult to see.  If I had infinite time and infinite resources I would love to write a blog that kept track of individual Washington journalists to trace their tit-for-tat trading of access for storyline.  There would be an index for each major Washington journalist with a full history of their stories and a score assigned to each one ranking the extent to which they sell the spin of their stories for access to powerful people.

3.  Greed Green and Grains: This would be a blog about policy issues surrounding economics, the environment and agriculture.  It would summarize policy news as well as analysis and research findings from the academic literature in clear and thorough detail.  An emphasis would be placed on developing vivid graphics that present the weight of the evidence in a compelling way.  Since this is my area of greatest expertise it therefore has the least cost and greatest professional benefit, so it would be my first priority.  If I had infinite time and resources this is the blog I'd write.  Unfortunately scarcity prevents me from writing the quantity and quality I'd like to.

Sigh...

I will write something somewhat substantive relatively soon.  I hope.