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Politics
Since January 1984, I've had the privilege each month of sharing my thoughts about Illinois government and politics with those of you kind enough to peruse this space. That's 105 columns, by my reckoning, and I trust that on balance the observations and insights contained therein have proven worthwhile to my fellow state government aficionados. This 106th column differs from all its predecessors in one simple respect it's the last I'll write as a working Statehouse reporter. After more than 24 years of covering state government and politics for the Chicago Sun-Times, I'm leaving to become an associate professor and director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at Sangamon State University. It's an exciting challenge, affording me the opportunity to help mold up-and-coming young journalists into skilled practitioners of our craft and thoughtful students of government. To my good fortune, though, the editors here at Illinois Issues have asked me to continue writing the "Politics" column in my new capacity, and I look forward to doing so, particularly as we head into another gubernatorial campaign. As I trade the rush of daily deadlines for the rigors of academia, though, it seems appropriate to take a few moments to reflect on a few of the changes the last two dozen years have brought, both to state government and to my calling. During that time, of course, we've seen the state's longest-serving governor as well as its first black and first female Supreme Court justices. The state budget has roughly quintupled, and there's been widespread reshuffling of executive branch agencies. Perhaps no development in government has been as significant, though, as the evolution of the General Assembly into a full-time, professional body. Set in motion by Republican legislative leaders in the late 1960s and endorsed by the framers of the 1971 Constitution, the transformation has been completed under largely Democratic leadership since then. As a result, today's lawmakers enjoy salaries, daily living expenses, district office allowances and other perquisites their predecessors could only dream about. Highly competent staff and computer-age technology provide rank-and-file members access to timely information about pending legislation that a generation ago would not have been available even to leaders. Yet the modernization of the legislature has its downside, as well. As more and more members see lawmaking as a career, not an avocation, winning the next election takes on greater, sometimes paramount, importance. As the ballot box stakes have become higher, so, too, has the cost of running for election, leading to an ever growing need for campaign contributions, most of which come from well-heeled special interest groups, often channeled through party leadership. At the same time, the very technology that places information at a lawmaker's fingertips also makes it an easy task for an opponent to graze through thousands of roll calls looking for a handful of controversial votes to use as campaign fodder. When potential liabilities are discovered, they can be converted into direct-mail assaults which other electronic wizardry permits to be targeted so as to cause maximum damage. The inevitable result has been a legislative environment in which it's become more difficult to forego political expediency for the sake of principle when it comes time to vote on controversial issues. Thus, topics like reform of the state's tax structure and adequate funding for the state's public schools remain on the legislative agenda under the category of unfinished business. The information explosion also has helped those of us who follow state government as the eyes and ears of the general public. In most cases, we are able to tap into the same sources as lawmakers to keep track of legislation important to our readers, listeners and viewers. Copies of bills, amendments, analyses and reports are readily available to help reporters understand what
6/July 1993/Illinois Issues they're covering, while tools like the personal computer, casette recorders and videotape make it easier and faster to prepare and file our stories. Despite such advances, I would submit there are worrisome trends in journalism today that tend to exacerbate the sort of problems that have arisen with the advent of the full-time legislature. Among the troubling currents:
A preference for shorter, simpler, "sexier" stories, rather than in-depth treatment of complex subjects. Consider, for example, the blanket coverage given the proposal to permit riverboat gambling in Chicago, in contrast to the sporadic reporting on the plight of tens of thousands of persons knocked off the welfare rolls in the last year. Such trends no doubt reflect a desire to provide an entertaining product for one's customers; after all, publishing and broadcasting are supposed to be money-making ventures. Yet in striving to provide the public what it wants to see, the media risks falling short in its historical duty of providing the public what it needs to know to make well-informed policy choices. If the average voter has little knowledge of an issue, of course, it's that much harder for the legislator who casts a courageous vote to explain why it was the right thing to do. And that, I hope, is where I come in at Sangamon State: helping to prepare future journalists to meet the intellectual and ethical challenges of our profession. Charles N. Wheeler III is a correspondent in the Springfield Bureau of the Chicago Sun-Times.
July 1993/Illinois Issues/7 |
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