lifestyle leader

I am beginning to think that The Economist, the liberal* weekly news magazine, is the source of the op-ed cycle in my local newspapers. Let me explain.

Since I apparently live in some podunk backwater of civilization, my copy of The Economist arrives about 4-5 days after it hits the news stands. (This, incidentally, is better than my copy of the Financial Times, which does not arrive at all). Since it takes me at least another 4-5 days to plow through the material, I'm usually quite far behind the news cycle by the time I've finished reading the thing. Luckily, the news-magazine is full of analysis, background and special features that stay relevant well after the headlines have faded.

However. What I'm starting to notice is that some of the opinion pieces in my local & national newspapers start sounding verrrrry familiar to things I've just read in The Economist, one week late. It's almost as if it there is a lag while the op-ed contributers further down the news chain plough through their own copies while desperately looking for intelligent-sounding things to say.

I will pursue this and collect further evidence to support my theory. In the meantime, if you're curious as to what the local Bugle-Herald-Tribune-Observer will be writing next week, I have good news. You no longer need a time machine.

----------------
(*liberal in the classic, J. S. Mill sense of favouring individual liberty while still recognizing the useful role of the state in many areas. Not liberal in the Paul Krugman sense.)