The birth of a blog…

It begins with one of those tedious mission statements: The purpose of this blog is to help our subscribers derive maximum benefit from Government Policy Newslinks.

Okay, that’s just some drivel which I don’t believe I just wrote.

What I’m trying to say (in plain English) is that this blog will shine a little extra light on government and advocacy group press releases and reports that are exceptionally newsworthy or unabashedly cynical, but might go unnoticed when they appear in a list that could contain links to as many as 200 or 300 press releases.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

A few days ago, the pharmaceutical industry claimed in a press release that $58 billion was spent in 2007 for drug research and development. What the press release didn’t mention was that pharmaceutical companies receive a 100% tax credit for their drug research and development expenses. So, while the industry patted itself on the back for making a large investment, the real story was that U.S. taxpayers paid for it. I tried to alert GPN subscribers by filing the press release under “taxation” and making a subtle reference to the tax credit in the headline. The point? Had this blog been in existence a few days ago, the press release would have been the subject of a not-very-subtle posting here.

Now, here’s the real beauty of it: I won’t have to be the source of all knowledge and wisdom (which I never was, anyway). As a two-way blog, any GPN subscriber could have alerted the rest of us to the tax credit angle that was omitted–but nonetheless was a big part of the story–from the industry’s press release.

NOTE: Long-time GPN subscribers may recall that this “blog” idea is a variation of a feature called “Editor’s Choice” which was part of the daily report until several years ago. Every night, I selected two or three press releases or reports which I felt deserved special attention from assignment editors and editorial writers. I had no idea how popular it had become until I discontinued it. The decision to terminate “Editor’s Choice” was a pragmatic response to an unresolvable problem: I had to make the selections at the end of a very long day and it became too burdensome to write pithy, sometimes acerbic, blurbs about press releases during the early morning hours when my energy was spent and my attention was worn out.

So it’s bon voyage! Let’s hope this blog gets interesting fast.

Edward Zuckerman, Editor

P.S. I really don’t know a lot about blogging. So please be patient as I navigate my way through these unfamiliar technological shoals.