When journalists are not too busy interviewing spinmasters and party hacks on both sides of the issue at hand in an effort to bring a false sense of neutrality to their articles, they often turn to a specialized type of source to lend a sense of authority to even the silliest of pieces. That source is the trend watcher, a man whose omniscience in his niche compels reporters to seek him out to comment on any news tangentially related to his expertise.

Sometimes, that expertise is extremely limited, as is the case with Samir Husni—"Mr. Magazine"—whom Gelf discussed earlier this year. Even though Husni only speaks about, well, magazines, he has graced the pages of 30 different publications this year, making guru-esque appearances in USA Today eight separate times.

Other trend watchers pick slightly larger niches, like coolness, or techie trends. (See if you can find the not-so-subtle consumer-trend watcher in a recent Business 2.0 piece by, well, me.)

And then there's John Pike. Pike, the director of Globalsecurity.org, has appeared in hundreds of publications this year, including fifteen different instances in the New York Times, where he discussed topics ranging from missing artillery in Iraq to the levy failure in New Orleans to spy satellite capabilities to al Qaeda's geopolitical ambitions. On his website, Pike cites his extensive knowledge of world affairs, in particular military and space issues. Certainly, Pike's depth of knowledge is extremely impressive, and he is readily accessible. (And certainly, the quality of the information he imparts is miles ahead of the Husni crowd.) But perhaps the biggest reason journalists keep returning to Pike is one he mentions prominently in his bio: "…Pike is widely noted for his ability to translate complex technical information into concise and pithy soundbites."