Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

What? The General Assembly Is Still Meeting?

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Bob Brown, Richmond Times Dispatch photojournalist. Photo credit: Richmond Times Dispatch

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Jeff Shapiro has a nice column in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch praising the work of the Bob Brown, the long-time news photographer who is retiring, after 42 years at the RTD, at the end of this month. His photographs have captured many moments in the legislature over the years and he is a common sight at the Capitol and around committee meetings.

Beyond the praise for Brown, what struck a chord with me was Shapiro’s description of what news coverage of the legislature used to be like and how the coverage has decreased over time. Today is a good example of that withering. It is Thursday, two days before the legislature is supposed to adjourn. Prominent legislation still needs to finalized. The budget conferees have missed their deadline for reporting a budget bill, meaning that the session may go into overtime or adjourn without an agreed-upon budget.

All of that would have been grist for several stories in the daily newspapers. But, today, not a single article in the RTD, only a couple of pictures by Bob Brown (one of the cute daughters of a House member). The Virginian Pilot, which used to have the best coverage of the legislature, has nothing. Somewhat surprisingly, the Washington Post does have an article about the near certainty of an adjournment without a budget.

The lead story on the front page in today’s RTD print edition dealt with a suit in Giles County about a mentally person not being placed in a mental health bid as quickly as the law requires. That’s important, but it is about a pending case that is a long way from settlement and not that relevant to most folks. Of course, I realize that relatively few people get the print edition (I don’t either, but I check the e-edition.) Most of the on-line stories pertain to sports. After all, we are in the run-up to March Madness.

And that is the state of today’s news coverage of the General Assembly, which makes laws and budget decisions that affect every Virginian.

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Comments

9 responses to “What? The General Assembly Is Still Meeting?”

  1. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    Well, there’s always The Virginia Mercury.

    And you… and Haner.

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      They’re as bad as the VP – lacking in balance and facts.

  2. Ronnie Chappell Avatar
    Ronnie Chappell

    Given the failures and superficial nature of coverage today, I’m not sure more coverage of the legislature would be a good thing

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      I think the superficiality is a function of the thinness of the staff and less priority given to the legislature. Michael Martz and Patrick Wilson are good reporters and provide good stories, but they can’t do everything.

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        I absolutely agree about Mike Martz. But you and I and Haner all expect there is only so much balanced reporting that will make it past the editors at RTD.

  3. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Ah, the good old days when we at the Roanoke Times had two or three people at the Capitol during session, our “sister” paper in Norfolk had at least three, and we were all crowded into a tiny pressroom next to Chicken’s. The Richmond papers had a small platoon, the Post two or three, and a half dozen other papers had full time correspondents.

    There is a chicken and egg phenomenon. Less coverage, less public attention, higher public apathy, followed by even less coverage. When the energy level is good, part of me would be willing to do more for this outlet, but it is getting harder to work up the energy when I know my post will be buried 15 minutes later by something from somebody else. When VPAP decided to diss Jim and I as reporters (but continue to print all the lefty content from VA Mercury), the motivation dried up. Nothing we wrote when we were consciously being neutral was any more biased than Mercury’s content. Less so sometimes. more balanced.

    So the readers are being fed one side.

    A recent VPAP story. It had a nice illustration of how few people voted in the early days of our 45-day voting regime, and how all the voters were much later, closer to election day. A republican legislator used the chart in support of his bill shortening the number of early voting days. The chart soon disappeared from VPAP. Coincidence, I’m sure….

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      Now its just a few of us sharing things with others, but we’re watching. I wouldn’t trust the reporters now with anything. No digging. All partisan.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Get serious. The Va newspapers are not going to send reporters all the way from Chicage to cover the GA nowadays. Just pick it up off the Twitter feed.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I also read the story about the problem finding a facility for that urgent need and so I still wonder why it’s not a priority for the Governor and the General Assembly. Why is this continuing to go on and not be addressed?

    In terms of media, when are the critics of media going to get off their duffs can stand up some new media that operates according to the way they want instead of blaming the media they don’t like?

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