An empty gallery overlooks the Texas Senate Chamber on sine die in the 87th Texas Legislature (Photo by Jana Birchum)
It was the best of times (for some), the worst of times (for many) and clearly the strangest of times for many journalists who spent several sessions under the pink dome. the COVID-19[feminine pandémie a fourni la meilleure excuse pour barrer les journalistes de la salle de la Chambre et du Sénat du Texas lors de cette session unique en son genre. Il a fallu une lettre de mi-session des rédacteurs en chef des principales publications d’État pour obtenir quelques l’accès à l’étage de la Chambre, et même alors, il était limité : les journalistes étaient tenus de garder leur siège pendant la plupart des débats de l’étage.
La nécessité d’avoir accès aux élus et à leurs collaborateurs pour signaler toute session ne peut être surestimée. Un sénateur qui passe devant vous dit que sa grosse facture de transport est en place demain. Un membre du personnel dans le couloir du fond vous explique un problème financier de l’école. Vous êtes sur le sol et vous voyez une poussière entre deux membres de la Chambre qui mènera à une vengeance de haut calibre le reste de la session.
Jean Moritz, qui couvre la politique du Texas pour le USA Today Network, couvre le Capitole depuis 1997. Il a du mal à identifier ce que les journalistes auraient pu manquer cette session, étant donné les restrictions d’accès déterminées. “C’est un peu comme dire, ‘Quoi [did] the steak you didn’t eat has the taste? We don’t know what we missed,” Moritz said. “We know how it was in the past.”
Moritz asks the questions most members of the press will never be able to answer: Was there tension between two senators that reporters couldn’t see? Is there a reason some bills haven’t made it to the schedule of intent? And, if these bills were on the timing of intent, why have some of these bills never been debated? “We just weren’t in a very good position to find out, and certainly not in real time,” said Moritz, who dedicated a column to the subject two weeks ago.
Relaxing the rules on the House floor allowed some access for lawmakers, especially when the House didn’t meet on time, Moritz said. It was difficult, but not impossible. The Senate, on the other hand, never relaxed its rules, and reporters found themselves filing reports from the third-floor gallery.
“The Senate side was as opaque as I’ve ever seen, in my memory. Zero for access,” Moritz said. “These kind of builds on the last two sessions, where even if you have access to them, they tightly restrict the ability to move around the room.”
RG Ratcliffethe long date Houston Chronicle Capitol reporter who recently retired after a stint at Texas monthly, goes even further. He says reporters’ access to the Senate has tightened significantly since becoming Lt. Governor. Dan Patrick was elected in 2014. Ratcliffe, who spent 38 years in the Capitol press corps, calls it “an authoritarian method of message control.”
“Now that the media has been moved to the gallery, I don’t see the reporters coming back to the floor,” Ratcliffe said. “The Founders saw the value of a free press defying the conventional wisdom of the ruling class. Apparently the Texas Senate doesn’t.”
A version of this article appeared in print on June 4, 2021 with the title: Press body locked up
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