The way it works on city desks of good newspapers is, long apprenticeships. It's amazing how deeply knowledgeable long-time reporters can be (not talking about

The way it works on city desks of good newspapers is, long apprenticeships. It's amazing how deeply knowledgeable long-time reporters can be (not talking about op-ed writers -- talking about journalists and reporters). It's also amazing how much information is known by these reporters and editors, but does not make it into stories because there's no space or because an independent corroboration cannot be found. That background information can help to frame the way the story is written, but might never appear in print.