Why Haven’t We Written About . . .
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James Joyner | Wednesday, March 14, 2007 |
Orin Kerr explains the strange silence of the Volokh Conspirators on the Gonzalez-U.S. Attorneys affair:
Of course we are all political hacks! Our secret trick is that we alternate which side to spin: sometimes we are political hacks for the right, and sometimes we are political hacks for the left. Naive readers occasionally mistake this for principle, but I trust the more sophisticated see it as the randomized hackery it truly is. In any event, a great rule of thumb is that our silence means that we are secretly conspiring with your enemies to keep stories out of the public eye. Remember, if a legal event isn’t being blogged about at the Volokh Conspiracy, it just didn’t happen.
Variants of the “Why haven’t you written about…” question are common in blog comments sections and blogger emails, as if we had some duty to take a stand on every issue under the sun. Personally, sometimes stories simply don’t pique my interest early and I’m often not motivated to catch up later on when everything worth saying has likely already been said. Conversely, there are sometimes stories that are demonstrably less important that tickle my fancy for whatever reason.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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If you change your mind, you can comment on this
Variants of the “Why haven’t you written about…” question are common in blog comments sections and blogger emails, as if we had some duty to take a stand on every issue under the sun.
The next time anyone poses that question to me, I have my answer all ready. It borrows from Denis Leary.
I notice you write about why you haven't written about somethings, but you haven't written about _____________________*
* I reserve this space for future whining.
I definitely understand that there are alot of stories out their to touch on and some don't inspire, but at least you've mentioned it. Volokh is the top legal blog and they normally blog at a pretty prodigious rate. The fact that they haven't even broached the subject seems strange when you look at their archives. It would be like Superficial taking 3 days to note that Brittney Spears may or may not have shaved her head and went bat-shit.
BTW, I haven't been able to access volokh.com
(or http://www.volokh.com) for the last four days. Anyone else?
Well, I accessed it yesterday to write the piece. And just now.
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