Let’s get two things straight. First, journalists are genuinely busy. The reason I get about 60 emails per day is that I am freelance; were I on the staff of one of the Nationals instead it would be hundreds. So calling on the same day really, really isn’t clever. In recent weeks I’ve even had people phone within two minutes of sending the release – so the response, reasonably enough, is that I haven’t yet read it. The second thing is that we’re miserable, self-important curmudgeons. Oh come on, we earn a living by getting our name in print, you think deep down we’re modest people? So the chance to terminate a call by demonstrating we’re too busy to talk is often too good to resist.

via Guy Clapperton.