Recent examples of my writing.
Whose Questions Are The GOP Debates Answering?
At Mediaite.
Are debates responding to opinion or driving it? The goal of a democracy - and the system the Citizens Agenda hopes to inculcate - is that voters are gauged by pollsters which can then drive candidates' focus on issues which informs debate topics. Voters > pollsters > candidates > debates. Instead, it's very possible that the system is reversed: candidates' ads and spin drive debate conversation, which informs voters, which drives polls. Candidates > debate > voters > polls.
Go long!
At The Daily.
The story of the media's evolution has been of reduction: reduced size, reduced speed, reduced context. The problem Salmon and Siegler identify may be, in part, this: Blog posts are too long for the news. Journalists treat news like a gas, filling the container they're given. And a blog is often too big a container for the news.
What BuzzFeed's New Politics Team Is Doing Right
At Mediaite. Featured at Poynter.
One month ago, people chuckled at Ben Smith's bizarre move, one that they snarkily assumed would take him from the world of competitive politics to a world of competitive YouTube clips. Instead, he's unveiled a different, compelling way to cover a political campaign - and other media outlets are figuring out how they can catch up.
Why Did Hollywood Earn Less in 2011 Than 2010? Hint: The Movies
At Mediaite. Featured at Shortformblog.
Slate's Dave Weigel noted that 2011's box office earnings are on pace to be $1 billion below 2010's. Which made me wonder: is there a correlation between the quality of this year's movies and the reduced earnings?
Yes, there is.
Santa's Christmas Eve Workload, Calculated
At The Atlantic. Featured by The Economist, Five Thirty Eight, The Wall Street Journal, Freakonomics, the Washington Post's Wonkblog, Buzzfeed, Oprah.com, Southern California Public Radio, Daily Dish, and New York magazine.
It is stipulated that Santa Claus exists. Further, that he spends the night of December 24th circling the globe in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. That he gains access to the homes of children that celebrate Christmas children, and that he gives them presents. And that he does this in the dark, unseen.
Granted, it seems... impractical. Over the course of one night, St. Nick has to stop by the home of every Christian child in the world. Of which there are a lot.
I decided to figure out how many.
The History of How We Follow Baseball
At The Atlantic. Featured on Deadspin.
Its a luxury of modern sports that you can bring the game with you. Santorum was watching football on a small tablet; he could as easily have been streaming a ballgame over an iPhone, or watching a constantly-updated gamecast. Should he have had more discretion, he could at a minimum have peeked at scores over the web.
A hundred years ago, sports fans -- read: baseball fans -- were not so lucky.