Follow-up Reporting

While it takes up the majority of my time, Reporting I is not my only class this semester. Nay, I have two more. One is a class in the Harry Truman School of Public Affairs, called Foundations of New Governance. Someday I'll get into what "new governance" is, but not now.

This morning I was reading a chapter in The Tools of Government on federal grant programs, and came across something interesting. Why are some grant programs ineffective and inefficient? Could it be because "Federal officials... know that they are much more likely to be judged by the intentions of a program than by its actual results" (Salamon 368)?

Are reporters dropping the ball by reporting heavily on the initiation of government programs, but not on the results of those programs? Do we need to do a better job of following-up?

Let me know what you think.

This has got me wondering if I am doing a good job of follow-up reporting. I think there will be some opportunities this fall for me to check up on new programs that I've reported on, especially those concerning city recycling.