The press and you.

• Author: Mitzelfield, Jim
• Position: Legislators and the media

YOU'VE JUST TAKEN THE OATH. You've moved into your plush new Capitol office. You're excited about reshaping your state and making good on that long list of campaign promises. Just when you're about to relax and contemplate your accomplishments, THE ONE RINGS. "IT'S REPORTER," your secretary moans, as if announcing the building is on fire. "He wants to ask you about . . ." YOU PANIC. "Do I still have to deal with these guys after I get elected?" you ask yourself, instructing your secretary to take a message before you even know why the reporter called. WRONG!

Dealing with the media doesn't to be a pain. Take it from a reporter who spent five years covering the Michigan Legislature. There are a number of simple things you as a state lawmaker can do to make life easier for yourself. My goal here is to show you how to win over the media and as a result communicate better with you constituents.

First, disabuse yourself of the notion that it's somehow the job of newspaper and TV reporters to make you look good. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not cheerleaders.

I'll never forget how shocked I was as a young wire service reporter when lawmakers would stop by with press releases and ask: "Is this where I drop this off to put it on the wire?" or even more boldly demand: "I'd like a story on this!" It was as if these folks thought they were ordering a pizza, and we were just a drive-through outlet. Kind of like saying, "Yeah, I'd like a 12-inch story to go, please, with a triple-deck 64-point headline and a photo on the side." A puzzled member of the former governor's staff once asked: "I don't understand why you don't run our press releases?"

The media has absolutely no responsibility to run your press releases and dislikes being treated as a branch office of Western Union. Whether you like it or not, we decide what's news, not you. As Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry said: "Get over it."

A far better approach is to formulate a strategy to convince us that what you care about is something we should care about.

In our role as watchdogs, we are in essence the eyes and ears of the thousands of readers who subscribe to our papers because they don't have the time or money to come to the Capitol and watch you themselves. This role, contemplated by the Framers of our nation more than 200 years ago, means that it's far more important that we devote what little space we have to exposing your mistakes than praising your successes.

Why? It's the same reason incumbents have a huge advantage. Most constituents rightly assume if they don't hear or read much about you, you're doing your job. It's the same reason we don't send a reporter to the airport to cover safe plane landings. While there certainly is a growing need for balance and positive stories about state government, these stories have less chance of getting printed as the news hole for "serious journalism" shrinks.

So what can you do to improve your coverage in the media?

Some things are obvious: Respect deadlines, don't hide from tough questions, return phone calls, don't pester reporters to cover...