A threadhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">on something we as journalists need to do a better job conveying: the watchdogging readers pay for often doesn& #39;t result in a story.
Why?
Because in many cases, gov& #39;t officials nix potentially bad or wasteful proposals when we start making calls.
2 recent examples:

In past year alone, a #Houston-area elected official proposed spending $47,000 from the general fund to send 5 employees to Orlando for Disney Institute customer service training.
Several local institutions, including Houston Community College, offer this, uh, way cheaper.

In another case, a local police agency sought contract approval with TV show Live PD, w/o prior public discussion.
Criminal justice reformers argue shows like this exploit defendants, who are disproportionately poor and non-white. https://theappeal.org/media-frame-time-to-ban-ride-along-police-tv/">https://theappeal.org/media-fra...

In both cases, after @houstonchron called the relevant public officials for more details, they pulled items from the agenda. Neither received a public vote.
Few people probably ever knew they were proposed in the first place.
And we moved on to other stories. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🗞️" title="Rolled-up newspaper" aria-label="Emoji: Rolled-up newspaper">

To be clear, journalists are not the only people vetting questionable proposals. Citizens + other officials also intervene.
But know when you subscribe to a https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📰" title="Newspaper" aria-label="Emoji: Newspaper">, you& #39;re sending a reporter (or more!) to City Hall who is making these calls, from the DA to Public Works, every day.

This has been a TED Talk on why you should subscribe to @HoustonChron ( https://bit.ly/2CD5U3Q ).">https://bit.ly/2CD5U3Q&q... Fellow reporters, help me out and share your best how-was-this-ever-even- a-proposal non-stories-->