A Difficult Beat is Harder Than Ever

The Iowa legislature was never easy to cover. It's gone from bad to worse

Photo by Austin Goode on Unsplash

Reporters covering the Iowa Legislature next week will have a more difficult time than ever trying to find out what’s going on to keep Iowans informed.  With Governor Reynolds and Republican leaders declining to take part in the annual Capitol Press Association legislative forum, there’s a loud and clear signal that Republicans plan to battle the media every step of the way.

For the last 20 years, legislative leaders and the governor have met for a few hours before the session to let journalists know what they plan to accomplish.  Reporters can ask questions, get information straight from the horse’s mouth, and pass that information along to Iowans.  Alas, no longer. 

The Republicans’ no-show is on top of last year’s decision to boot journalists off the floor of the Iowa Senate.  Reporters sat at the press benches at the front of the chamber for more than 100 years.  My guess is they won’t be invited back next week. 

I sat at that bench for years and always found the legislature the most challenging beat I ever had, particularly for a TV news guy.  Normal legislative affairs are slow and plodding.  Written bills, committee hearings, speechifying on the floor, backroom deals – none of that is great for television, which prefers visual, fast-moving stories.  Most days, I would try to go up there in the morning, find a bill that had been introduced, then leave the statehouse as quickly as possible to go talk to people in the community who would be affected by the bill. 

On other days, I would know an important bill was coming up for debate.  So with my photographer and camera, I would wait in the balcony overlooking the chamber, waiting for the bill to come up.  One day, I was up there waiting until late afternoon, but the bill didn’t come up for floor debate.  The floor leader eventually looked up at me, smiled, and shook his head – letting me know that as long as we were there, he wasn’t bringing the bill up for debate.  Defeated, I packed up and headed back to the station, having wasted the day.  By the time I arrived in the newsroom, I learned the bill was being debated.  The floor leader didn’t mind newspaper reporters covering the debate, but he sure didn’t want any of it to show up on TV.

Open meetings – except the most important ones

Iowa is lucky to have strong open meetings and open records laws.  Enacted in 1967, Iowa’s laws have a “presumption of openness.”  They generally work well.  But another frustration to covering the Iowa Legislature is that the most important meetings in all of Iowa government – the ones where state-wide decisions are made – are closed to reporters and citizens.  When the legislature passed the law in the 1960’s, it conveniently exempted its own caucus meetings.  The Republican and Democratic caucuses meet frequently throughout the session, and the party in charge controls which bills move forward and which die.  All those decisions, the debate about the pros and cons of a bill, the horse trading, the counting of noses, it all happens behind closed doors.  Yes, bills are then debated on the floor in open session, but by that time, it’s a foregone conclusion how the vote will turn out.  Journalists and Iowans are shut out of the most important part of the process.

I have never understood why Iowa law prohibits three or four members of a local school board or city council from sitting down at dinner to talk over issues while the Iowa Legislature can completely violate the intent of the open meetings law.  I know it will never change, but I also know it’s wrong.

From bad to worse

Despite the challenges I’ve mentioned, I knew during my days as a statehouse reporter that the governor and legislative leaders respected journalists and needed good relations with them to get their story out to voters.  Those days are long gone as legislators talk directly to their base through social media. The current gang in control of the statehouse sees it as part of its mission to do battle with reporters, to ignore them as much as possible.  It plays to their base to be seen kicking journalists around.  It certainly makes their lives easier to ignore questions from pesky reporters.

When the legislature gavels in next Monday, the message to Iowans seems to be “listen to the flowery speeches and carefully written press releases.  But don’t ask questions.  Don’t trust reporters.  We’ll tell you what you need to know when we’re good and ready, and not before.”

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists 

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

To receive a weekly roundup of all Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists, sign up here (free): ROUNDUP COLUMN

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