I covered the hearing in Pekin tonight hosted by State Representative Mike Smith (D-Canton). This is one in a series of hearings around the state hosted by House Democrats to criticize the Governor for his amendatory vetoes of the budget that stripped out funding for various projects supported by his political enemies. The fight between Madigan and Blagojevich (both Democrats) is unprecedented, even in the colorful history of Illinois politics and government.
But my gripe is about the organization of last night's hearing. Despite asking for media coverage, there appeared to be zero attempt to make it anything but difficult for the media. The lighting in the room at the Pekin Public Library was so bad, shooting video or still pictures was, at best, a challenge, and practically impossible. Plus, the sound system was cobbled together and held in place with hose clamps, bailing wire, and tape. It was very difficult to hear what was going on. Plus, needless to say, there was no option to plug into the sound system and record the testimony.
Granted, the point of a public hearing is for the public to have access to the event. But there were some basic yet major flaws with the setup of this event that made it very difficult for the media to cover the event, and tell people that couldn't make it to the hearing what happened.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
No Lights, No Sound, Little to no Action
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I covered the hearing in Urbana, which had similar problems (and drew an overflow crowd). I wonder if this event was an actual formal hearing, the type that's held by a committee, in which minutes are recorded and so forth --- or more of a political event. After all, the people who are supposed to get the input from this series of hearings aren't Illinois House members, but the governor and State Senate President Emil Jones. So maybe the funding for lighting and a sound system wasn't there, as it might have been for a formal hearing. Still, since the hearing WAS a media event to a large degree, you'd think they would have been more savvy helping the media record the event.
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