Setting the bar low
By Chait is extremely right about this; if you set out to to write a story about how Chris Christie wasn’t always the vindictive monster he is today, and you went on a search for a story to illustrate that point, and the best you can find is “seriously contemplating but in the end electing not to file a frivolous lawsuit to make his HS baseball team worse, while potentially threatening the team’s season,” the project has pretty much failed, and you’ve demonstrated something, but it sure isn’t the thesis you set out to demonstrate.