OC Political

A very interesting discussion took place today over at twitterverse with regards to the departures of seasoned capitol bureau reporters who are moving on to new gigs and assignments.

Wyatt Buchanan @thewyatt, Sacramento Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Chronicle, tweets his departure:

Excited to announce I’ll be moving on to Phoenix and a gig at the @Cronkite_ASU journalism school at the end of the month.

Aaron McLear @aaronmclear, former Press Secretary for Governor Schwarzenegger now partner at Redwood Pacific Affairs, tweets with a reminder:

With @thewaytt’s departure, the Bay Area now has zero reporters in Sac covering state gov’t. Same w Central Valley.

Ben Alder @alderben, Capitol Bureau Chief for Capitol Public Radio, chimed in and echoed:

@aaronmclear @thewyatt That’s zero PRINT reporters.

Judy Lin @JudyLinAP, Captiol Reporter for the Associated Press, quips:

With latest loss of @thewyatt and @jwsanders55, Sacramento Capitol press corps looking more like @JerryBrownGov‘s comms staff.

Lin was referring to Brown’s Press Secretary Gil Duran who has moved on as Communications Director for Attorney General Kamala Harris and Brown’s Deputy Press Secretary Elizabeth Ashford who is now Chief of Staff for Attorney General Kamala Harris as well.

Dan Morain @DanielMorain, Political affairs columnist and editorial writer for The Sacramento Bee, notes:

A few years back, I did count showing that in, as I recall, 2003 70-plus newspaper reporters covered the Capitol. Times change.

Aaron McLear expands the discussion with a worthy point:

Skeleton crew of a press corps explains relative lack of scrutiny current pols enjoy. Reporters are spread too thin

Dan Walters @WaltersBee, veteran political columnist for the Sacramento Bee quickly replied:

Bee bureau probably producing more now than at any other time, head-to-head with big LA Times output. Tough stuff, too.

Paul Mitchell @paulmitchell of Redistricting Partners notes:

@aaronmclear have to agree with @waltersbee – more news coverage plus blogs and crazy twitter accounts means incessant coverage of pols.

Ben Alder makes a key point:

I think Aaron’s point might be that the coverage is more shallow, less investigative than before.

The incredible shrinking number of capitol bureau reporters should be concerning for Californians who are anxious about policy matters that affects their communities, pocket books and the future in the Golden State.

It is with hope that various newspapers and media up and down the state will reverse the trend by dispatching more reporters to cover the state capitol with much more scrutiny of the pols and policy matters.