Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Legislators look at press

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 9:33 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WRITER PAT HICKEY was in town last week and we had some time to visit. Hickey, a former GOP assemblyman from Reno, is one of my more interesting friends. His interest in local, state, national and international politics is the product of an active mind and broad background. He sided with the Contras in Nicaragua so he went down there and took them some needed supplies. The other day he came to Clark County with Rev. Sun Myung Moon as a member of the Washington Times Foundation. If it's controversial or exciting you can find this father of four children not far away.

Recently he completed his Master of Arts in Journalism at the UNR Reynolds School of Journalism. His completed thesis is on: "What Members of the Nevada Assembly Think About Media Coverage of the 1999 Legislative Session." Although Hickey didn't use names of those interviewed, watchers of Nevada legislators can easily pick out and identify the comments of many. It's an interesting and revealing piece of work.

Cy Ryan, Geoff Dornan, Brendan Riley and Ed Vogel should, as longtime legislative reporters, appreciate some remarks: "Experienced capitol reporters generally get high marks from members. A veteran Las Vegas Democrat says he thinks 'reporters who have covered the capitol beat for a long time tend to have a better grasp of the issues and therefore go into more depth.' A second-term Republican member agrees. 'I think the depth of coverage stems from the amount of experience the reporter has,' he said."

There were complaints about the lack of in-depth exploration of issues by the media. Hickey writes, "In-depth exploration of issues may be important to policy makers and some proponents of civic journalism, but some Assembly members doubt that most of the reading public is interested in deeper more probing -- coverage of the legislature.

"Still, one freshman assemblywoman from Northern Nevada doubts that most reporters are interested in exploring complex issues. She said, 'It's all about sound bites!' "

Lack of adequate television coverage, especially from Las Vegas, was also noted by legislators. Many of them see a great value in the additional use of e-mail and the Internet.

Again the capitol press corps came in for kudos. Hickey reports, "When it comes to the kind of attack journalism that national surveys indicate is experienced by elected officials, Nevada lawmakers generally don't accuse the Carson City's capitol press corps of those kind of sensationalistic shenanigans. However, many members do have their share of 'horror stories' about reporters gone amuck in the business of muckraking."

Also of interest are the following observations: "By a fourteen to seven margin, members agreed that media as 'watchdog' contribute to the betterment of legislators' ethical conduct while in session in Carson City.

"The watchdog they say may intimidate, but not always in constructive ways. A veteran Assembly leader said, 'The -- media scrutiny makes you measure every word you speak and be very political in the way you speak, which is exactly what the public hates.'

"One veteran assemblywoman said she thinks 'it's probably a good idea for people to think the media are always listening ... It may cause certain unscrupulous people not to run for office.'

"Many members think it's a good idea the media keep tabs on the public portion of their lives. A veteran assemblyman recalls that most instances of unethical conduct around the Legislature have 'come from stories that were broken by the media.' A second-term Democrat agrees, 'I think media scrutiny makes for more open government and better legislators,' he said."

Almost humorous was the remark of a freshman legislator from Northern Nevada who was concerned about accuracy. " 'I think what they -- reporters -- do is if they can't get a good source to tell them what went on behind closed doors -- they'll speculate,' he said. The same member said, too often the media assume the worst about lawmakers." Gee whiz, I can't imagine our legislators are still meeting behind closed doors.

The thesis tells us that a vast majority of the legislators say they can detect a "media bias." Oftentimes this is a bias along regional lines and the belief reporters too often interview Assembly leaders. Not one complaint about gender bias was lodged by female legislators.

Legislators admit they learn how to manipulate some press members. "A veteran legislative leader gave the press credit for seeing through much of the manipulation. 'I don't think the media buys it,' he said." A freshman colleague says he hopes the veteran is right. " 'It's up to the media to put a check on it,' he said."

The legislators are irritated by news media that commission polls and then build stories around the results. The freshman legislator who was quoted as saying, " 'I don't fault the media for relying on them ... But they don't have an undo influence (on me) as far as I'm concerned,' " was worth a chuckle.

I would suggest every member of the media get a copy of Hickey's thesis and spend 30 or 40 minutes reading it. It's easy reading and should be interesting to reporters.