Up to speed

Text messages sent to journalists by the commerce department on inflation data on Tuesday may belie the popular notion of lethargic government employees. The first message, routinely sent ahead of every government data release, said inflation data would be on the Press Information Bureau site shortly. Within minutes another message arrived to say the site was down and the information would be emailed to each journalist's personal ID. Sure enough, it arrived in their mailboxes soon after. Such proactive vigilance was probably the result of the seemingly "good" news that inflation had hit a three-year low, but in a news cycle in which competition is minute-to-minute, reporters at least were grateful.