Llewellyn
King
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September 10, 2007
Political Reporting
Booms in Washington, and the Searchlight Always Shines
They slice, they dice, they dissect, they puree, they aggregate and they
disaggregate. They examine, they analyze, they probe and they speculate.
They create myths and they destroy legends. They are the new breed of
political reporters in Washington and their ranks are swelling.
At one time, the coverage of national political news was the prerogative
of large newspapers --especially the hometown journal, The Washington
Post and its big eastern rival, The New York Times. The news
services, mostly the Associated Press, filled in the gaps. They did not
aspire to lead the pack.
The coterie of political reporters was fairly small, specialized and
exclusive. With occasional exceptions like Hearst's Marianne Means, they
were all men. Those were the days of The Boys on the Bus. Young and
ambitious journalists longed to be foreign correspondents and to work
for New York newspapers. A job in Washington was a good job, but it was
still the first row of the second rate.
Then the center of gravity moved to Washington D.C.
New York newspapers declined in number and Watergate glamorized
Washington journalism. Also, a secondary industry sprouted in Washington
serious, well-researched newsletters, covering everything from nuclear
power to higher education. They provided jobs in the press corps and
stepping stones.
More, political talk shows on television made national names of some
reporters. That was an additional reason to join the Washington press
corps. Why be respected in Chicago when you could have national
attention from the nation's capital?
By 1975, Washington was the place to be and politics was the subject.
After the surge of ambitions ignited by Watergate, things settled down
for a while as interest in science, energy, medical and environmental
reporting rose. Equilibrium returned.
In the 1990s, money came to tip the balance toward political journalism
again. As lobbyists proliferated (there are more than 30,000
registered), they had money to spend on political issue advertising.
They had to get their messages to the members of Congress. To use The
Washington Post and The Washington Times for this was
expensive and wasteful. Specialized media had to be found.
The first beneficiary of this new wealth was Roll Call: the
sleepy local newspaper of Congress, then published once a week when
Congress was in session. It was joined, a decade and a half ago, by
The Hill, founded as a weekly by Martin Tolchin, a veteran New
York Times reporter. Both are now published three times a week, more
to accommodate the new advertising than the news. Another commonality:
They paid low wages to beginning reporters and relied on experienced
editors to cleanup the reporting.
Now that business model is under attack. This year, a third paper a
cross between a web site and a printed paper appeared. It is The
Politico the entrant of Robert Allbritton, a wealthy banker
and television station owner who is spewing money.
He has stirred up the salary structure in Washington journalism in a way
that has never happened before. Whereas, Roll Call, and more so
The Hill, paid reporters the lowest possible wages, Allbritton
has thrown open Ft. Knox. Instead of starting reporters at $30,000 a
year, Allbritton has hired big names from The Washington Post and
The Wall Street Journal at salaries of up to $300,000.
In addition to the three aforementioned newspapers, the lobbying boom
has also generated new web-based daily publications from older
publishers like Congressional Quarterly and its rival, The
National Journal.
No wonder spontaneity has been wrung out of politics. If a member of
Congress so much as eats peas off a knife, it will be reported somewhere
and commented upon somewhere else. In the old days, reporters and
congressmen knew each other, and reporters cut their subjects some
slack, especially in irrelevant matters of personal conduct. Now the
microscope is never off, let alone the searchlight.
© 2007 North Star
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