Power, politics and the press--a look back: the dean of the Texas Capitol press reflects on what it was like when the media referred to the government as "we" rather than "they.".

• Author: McNeely, Dave

AUSTIN, Texas -- I reported on my first session of the Texas Legislature in 1963, for The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at The University of Texas at Austin. I'm now the dean of the Texas Capitol press corps. I can tell you that us veteran press corps reporters have seen a lot of changes since the 1960s, in technology, openness and demeanor.

Back then, Texas and many other states did a lot in secret. Appropriations bills the size of the New York phonebook were drafted behind closed doors, and dropped on legislators' desks at the end of the 140-day session, with just a few hours to figure out what was in them--and what wasn't.

Lobbyists had a huge influence on who became House speaker. They wrote most bills, and could affect legislation with a top-down phone call from a posh watering hole.

In an environment where relationships are everything, green reporters like me had trouble finding out what was going on. Those reporters in the know were veterans who'd built up years of trust not just with legislators, but also with lobbyists. Many were from the generation that had been through World War II, who referred to the government as "we" rather than "they." Some reporters became press secretaries for governors and then cycled back into the press corps.

We wrote on manual typewriters and punched our stories into teletype machines to get them to our home offices. Television was still young; most people got their state government information from newspapers.

In what I call "the pre-ethics days," before stricter lines were drawn between legislators, lobbyists and reporters, senior legislators had parking places on the Capitol grounds, and offices in the Capitol. So did the press. The University of Texas gave football tickets to legislators--and reporters. Movie lobbyists gave free passes to both groups. At Christmas, the liquor lobby gave a couple bottles of whiskey to each legislator--and each reporter.

And not just in Texas. David Ammons, who heads the Associated Press bureau in Washington, recalls what reporters were like when he arrived in Olympia in 1971: "The old guard, mostly crusty, hard-drinkin', blue-collar types, who cussed a lot, were cozy with their sources, and wore bias on their sleeve. I was appalled when lobbyists would pull up and distribute bottles of booze from their car trunks at Christmastime."

Ammons, now 57, says he initially "took on a purer-than-thou attitude, which was somewhat self-defeating, refusing to fraternize with any sources and ignoring both lobbyists and staffers, assuming their 'spin' would pollute me." The Watergate-era wariness of the powerful also added to his youthful skepticism or cynicism. Eventually, he says, he loosened...