Comments on: Media Perks Questioned At Legislature

By: David Zarkin

David Zarkin — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:31:50 +0000

I enjoyed the biographical information in this article. I too started with UPI in Spokane and Los Angeles before joining the Statesman staff in 1965. I remember the Speed Graphic and it was being used by Scoop when I started on the Evening Statesman. Photo of Church and Castro is super. I never met Castro but did shake hands with Church in City Hall across from the Statesman Building. I never got a chance to cover the Legislature but if I hadn’t been enlisted in the Coast Guard for boot camp I could have covered the Washington Legislature for UPI. Jim McLaughlin called the Legislature “the cave of the winds.” (We worked on the night desk at the Statesman). Keep up the good work.

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:26:21 +0000

Very good post, Dave. Maybe one of your best reads. And your final point needed amplification of this kind.

One point you missed was the agenda behind the Idaho Reporter doing the story in the first place. If you recall, those reporters weren’t credentialed in the statehouse because their paychecks are signed by a lobbyist organization, the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Now they’re cynically using the media to get their way. Very sad.

By: Muck Raker

Muck Raker — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:45:09 +0000

Without the free space accommodation, the media will – in these days of TV reporters shooting their own video and radio stations being essentially out of the news business – be less inclined to pick the low-hanging legislative “news” fruit they so persistently feed us when the Xgr is in town.

This will result in lawmakers getting less face time to promote their pet projects.

The traditional and existing arrangement is symbiotic.

Unless things have changed in the past couple of decades, the media pays for its infrastructure (phone lines, data transfer, etc.). If they’re not, they should.

Reporters still have to feed the meters surrounding the capitol and a station logo has traditionally not been adequate insurance against parking tickets.

I wouldn’t look for any major changes happening soon.

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:36:32 +0000

the law of reciprocity

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 05:25:32 +0000

Even with his “heavy handed” way of doing things, you have to admit he has a point.
I doubt if Ford Motor Company would ever offer Ralph Nader free office space.

By: Clancy

Clancy — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:40:02 +0000

Great anecdotes of your career.

The current issue seems a little petty. The press corp should buck up and pay whatever the going rate is in other states. And the legislators should not get so worked up about some of these perks. Without the free press, I am afraid of who would keep the lawmakers accountable.

I really like the real time blogging from the likes of Betsy Russel (Spokesman Review). No longer due we have to wait till the next morning to read what happened the day before.