This year’s legislative session is being dominated by huge issues of public concern yet there seems to be almost no public involvement. The budget proposed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell would raise the income tax and throw billions at education in the false hope such an investment might also lead to lower local property taxes.
The governor’s office, the Speaker of the House and the legislature as a whole have been tossed into turmoil over ethics. Legalization of (medical) marijuana and gay marriage questions are on the agenda, and there is a battle over whether the judicial branch should be completely independent of legislative oversight.
This is just the tip of the issues-iceberg that has been exposed. Many other important ones will never see the light of day, because the news media as it exists today in Connecticut does not have the time or resources to cover any of it.
This is not a criticism of the men and women who come to work every day to try to cover the news at the state capitol and your local city hall. At higher levels than the beat reporter, there is a growing trend in journalism to run news organizations on a shoestring. The content that is the least expensive to produce finds its way to the audience. As a result, public discourse suffers.
Everyone was surprised when a poll taken two days after Rell announced her proposal to increase the income tax showed her approval rating holding steady. This is in large part due to the fact that her budget speech to the General Assembly was a one day story. There is no public outrage, because very few realize what is on the table.
There is no time for analysis or context in most of today’s reporting on critical public issues. There are fewer than 12 news organizations that commit reporters to covering the Capitol on a daily basis. During the course of the session that number may reach 15.
No Diversity
The Capitol press corps is so small, each reporter is forced to cover one or two stories a day, not surprisingly, they often choose the same one. This leads to rally-of-the-day or the scandal-of-the- moment news coverage.
Television is the worst offender. Every Connecticut TV station finds a way to use the symbol of the Capitol building in their graphics package, but only three have reporters assigned to cover state government on a regular basis. And they get less and less air time each year, as stories about government are bumped by traffic accidents, fires and random violence – stories which require neither research nor thought to cover. The title “political reporter” is as much marketing as it is real.
In 1991, at least 40,000 people showed up at the Capitol to protest the imposition of the income tax. Back then, every TV station in the state had been leading with the income tax story for about six months, radio stations still had competing news departments, and several newspapers had more than one reporter assigned to the Capitol. There’s a direct connection between coverage levels and public awareness.
One day this July, people across Connecticut are going to open their paychecks and notice their take- home pay has dropped because of a state income tax increase. Their electric bills will keep going up and their neighbor might lose a job as another Connecticut business downsizes. They will look around for answers and realize not only has their government failed them, but the news media have failed them by deliberately looking the other way.
Dean Pagani is a former gubernatorial advisor. He is V.P. of Public Affairs for Cashman and Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury.