I’m a big fan of beat reporting – steady, day-in, day-out attention to a topic. I love to do it, and when I’m trying to learn a new topic, the first place I turn is to the beat reporters who cover it.

Today’s example is the Stockton Record’s Alex Breitler, who cut through the noise a couple of days ago to explain what state water official Jerry Meral had and had not said about the state’s views toward building a giant tunnel to divert water around the Sacramento Delta to points south:

People are tweeting today that the Brown administration will “seek” a smaller conveyance in the Delta, and that “big tunnels appear out.”

Easy, there.

What was said in yesterday’s Assembly committee hearing — and reported by the Bee’s Matt Weiser– is that a wide range of alternatives will be considered, including a 3,000 cfs pipe (five times smaller than the 15,000 cfs system described in last year’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan working draft).

A big tunnel isn’t “out.” It’s just that officials are no longer touting it as the leading solution.