The Media

By TOM LITTLEWOOD


The Downstate gap in congressional coverage

UNLESS there are reporters watching what happens in the committee rooms and other out-of-the-way places in Washington, a congressman can carry on like a carnival medicine man, peddling one line in the Capitol and another back in this district.

Having a reporter in Washington who understands Illinois and its politics ought to be part of any newpaper's reponsibility to its readers if its circulation is much over 40,000. The Illinois newspapers owned by the Gannett and Copley chains maintain Washington bureaus with Illinois specialists, but several of the larger papers in downstate Illinois give their congressmen a pass by dispensing with any kind of home-tailored coverage from Washington.

Robert E. Hartley, editor of the Decatur-based Lindsay-Schaub newspapers aware of this deficiency in his organization. "Our congressmen go off to Washington, do whatever they want and tell us whatever they want us to know," he acknowledged. "When they come back to the district, we drool all over'em, chase 'em around and ask stupid questions." Besides Decatur, where the Herald and Review sell 64,000 copies daily, Lindsay-Schaub owns newspapers in Carbondale, East St. Louis, Edwardsville and Champaign-Urbana. Combined circulation on Sunday totals over 158,000.

Last Summer, Hartley made a major decision by hooking up with the Capitol Hill News Service (CHNS), which was founded and is still heavily subsidized by Ralph Nader. Because of Nader's reputation as a liberal reformer, the arrangement was not without commercial risk to Lindsay-Schaub. Hartley said he continues to be bothered by the financial subsidy, but without Nader's subsidy, the cost of the service would be greater. Created to make low-cost coverage available to smaller papers that could not afford to look over the shoulder of their congressman in Washington, CHNS has one other Illinois client: the Alton Telegraph.

Michael Isikoff, a 26-year-old New Yorker who received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1976, represents the Illinois papers and some smaller ones in Indiana through CHNS. He solicited new clients earlier this year from among the more prosperous downstate publications without their own Washington reporters and was surprised to learn that some of the editors are quite satisfied with their congressional relationships and think they're printing too much Washington news as it is. However, Lindsay-Schaub agreed to pay CHNS $150 a week for the service on a trial basis. Isikoff's salary remained what it was before — $8,000 a year, which is less than a janitor earns on Capitol Hill.

Following the trial period, Hartley said he was pleased with Isikoffs work. For the Lindsay-Schaub Courier in Urban-Champaign, Isikoff broke the story of the CIA's funding of research projects at the University of Illinois. Lindsay-Schaub editors see him as an adjunct of their state and local coverage. He fields countless requests for information that will flesh out some local or regional story which are more important for an Illinois newspaper than a think piece on international diplomacy. One of the reasons, undoubtedly, why so many Americans are turned off by the federal government is the lifeless, standardized news ordinarily served up from Washington.

Hartley may have been pleased, but the congressmen from central and southern Illinois were not. Reps. Edward R. Madigan (R., 21st-Lincoln), Melvin Price (D., 23rd-East St. Louis), George E. Shipley (D., 22nd-Olney) and even Paul Simon (D., 24th-Carbondale), a former newspaper owner himself, all complained about Isikoffs coverage. Simon wrote a letter to the editor accusing the reporter of not understanding the legislative process.

In Shipley's case, Isikoff may have had something to do with the congressman's decision to retire from the House. For many years, Shipley was a glaring example of a mediocre representative who got by because the folks back home didn't have the foggiest notion of what he was doing or not doing in Washington.

This year, after being absent for a long string of roll call votes, Shipley explained to Isikoff that he had a serious back ailment, that everyone in Washington knew it but not the voters back home and he'd prefer to keep it that way. The reporter printed his excuse, and shortly thereafter Shipley announced his retirement.

Who can afford it?

Which are the downstate newspapers that might be able to afford their own Washington coverage and don't have it?

— the Peoria Journal-Star with a Sunday circulation of about 119,000. It has tried various unsatisfactory arrangements with stringers and its editorial conservatism makes a Nader affiliation most unlikely.

— the Bloomington Pantograph (circulation: 52,200) in which Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson has a small financial interest.

Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette (44,000 on Sundays).

Waukegan News-Sun (41,000 daily).

The latter two buy the Copley News Service with Washington news by Illinois reporter Bob Estill who writes primarily for Springfield, Joliet, Aurora, Elgin and Wheaton.D

December 1977 / Illinois Issues/33


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