The Press Index

Here's a job for someone with far too much time on their hands, inspired by this article about an alleged influx of foreign journalists to Beirut: tally the number of foreign journalists in the country on any given date, and use that number as a barometer for Lebanon's instability. The logic is that the international press is only going to cover Lebanon if it is about to explode, and that their response will probably be quicker than most foreign countries or, say, am Arab League diplomatic summit.

The LA Times article suggests that there has been a noticeable uptick in the Press Index during the past few months. I'd tend to disagree -- some journalists may have found their way here because of the (relative) calm in Iraq, but we're probably in a holding pattern. Everyone is just waiting for the next shoe to drop, and that can be done from Manhattan.