Stories that weren't done right
".., There was some . . . decision on abortion. I don't even know what it is. The Washington Post had every columnist writing about it, you know, everybody sitting back and theorizing about the goddam abortion thing. It's just silly. Give the Washington papers a chance and they'll bore you to death."
IN WASHINGTON maybe, but newspaper readers in Illinois were in no danger of being "theorized" to death about the decision last year to discontinue public support of abortions for low-income women. Wise public policy relies on the flow of unbiased information — all the more so when (as in the abortion case) there are zealous pressure groups in operation. While the abortion bill veto override was being debated, Illinois newspapers had a responsibility to discuss not just what was being said in Springfield, but the possible implications of the issue — what it meant in their community. Many took courageous editorial stands. Others opened their letters columns to the semihysterical warnings of the opposing camps. Analysis of social policy What was lacking though in the period preceding the veto override was calm, dispassionate analysis of the social ramifications, not in some faraway places but right here in Chicago and East St. Louis. With more than two-thirds of its residents on welfare, East St. Louis had considerable interest in the outcome. But the Metro East Journal made do for the most part with wire stories of the political skirmishing. Once the override succeeded and the question was decided, the Chicago papers did a fairly good job of describing the expected impact. Others did less well. Reinforcing the anti-urban prejudices of its readers, the Elgin Courier, for example, put this headline over a wire story from Chicago: "Aid Ban May Spur Theft To Pay For Abortions." For a democracy to function effectively, social policy options should be discussed fully before and not after the decisions are made. The more recent federal legislation raising the compulsory retirement age is another example of an issue monopolized by pressure groups and not aired in the press until the matter was already decided. Bringing abstract social questions home to the front doorstep is never simple. It can strike sensitive hometown nerves. In our ever more complex society, nevertheless, the need was never greater. Coverage from afar Readers of the Washington Post, meanwhile, have ringside seats for this year's election of a new congressman in the 22nd (southeastern) district of Illinois. Once a congressman makes it to Washington he's likely to be around awhile, which makes the grass-roots selection process interesting material in the capital. That the Post, which is for my money the best newspaper in the country, should devote hundreds of front-page column inches to 11 running stories before the primary alone, in an effort to show the continuity of a typical campaign is praiseworthy. Most political reporting tends to be spasmodic, skipping from one event (or pseudo-event) to another. But good grass-roots reporting is not as easy as it may sound. Being unfamiliar with the district and its people, the Post reporter Tom Reid made erroneous factual assumptions and misguided interpretations. More important, and contrary to what one might expect, the visiting reporter fell for the millionaire "media" candidate, Gene Stunkel, and underestimated the strength of the Republican primary winner, Dan Crane. Reporting at home Themselves part of the local power structure, many smaller newspapers ordinarily soft-pedal the financial details of local politics. This time, to their credit, it was the local press, the Danville Commercial-News, the Lindsay-Schaub newspapers, and a few others, that dug into relevant topics such as Stunkel's financial background. The Commercial-News is one of 75 newspapers in the Gannett chain. Gannett pays $2,000 a week for the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times supplemental news service. However, Christy Bulkeley, publisher of the Danville paper, was critical of Reid's "golly-gee-whiz" approach to the campaign and did not print any of the outsider's stories. "If it is to be done," she said, "grass-roots reporting should be done right, and it wasn't." The Champaign News-Gazette, which circulates on the northern edge of the district, but which did little campaign reporting of its own, bought publication rights (for $200) and ran many of the Post stories. For other reasons, incidentally, the Gannett chain no longer buys the Post-L.A. Times service for all its papers. The chain had grown so in size that the news service doubled its price. Instead of renewing, Gannett chose to invest the money in its own news service instead. The Rockford newspapers also are owned by Gannett in Illinois. June 1978 / Illinois Issues/33
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