{"id":2393,"date":"2025-03-05T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2393"},"modified":"2025-03-05T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T21:07:09","slug":"what-were-they-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2393","title":{"rendered":"What were they thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This blog was written a little over two years ago as an op-ed. The newspaper to which it was submitted rejected it. Now that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has recommended members of Congress cancel and never reschedule town hall meetings, this essay has more meaning.<\/p>\n

The Iowa Capitol Press Association<\/a> canceled its annual legislative preview forum earlier this week when Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds<\/a>, House Speaker Pat Grassley<\/a>, and Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver<\/a> rejected the ICPA\u2019s invitation to participate in the event that has been held over the past twenty years without incident.<\/p>\n

The ICPA should have continued to schedule the event without the unreliable Republicans. There is another faction of the Ninetieth General Assembly that has participated in the past \u2013 the minority party, otherwise called Democrats.<\/p>\n

Canceling the event because the party in power refuses to be confronted by questions that might be tough to answer is ceding power to power. The Republicans win again. At the rate things are going in Iowa we\u2019re about to face the edge of state-run press. There are hints of it already when you read the newspaper and see the media release by the governor\u2019s office the day before printed in toto.<\/p>\n

The media has more power than it recognizes. Hold the legislative preview forum with Democratic leadership from each chamber. Surely, they have something to say. Perhaps it\u2019s time to hear the other side, even if it has an extremely small opportunity to have its ideas enacted. Empty chair debates have been going on for at least 100 years.<\/p>\n

Burton K. Wheeler<\/a>, Progressive vice-presidential nominee in 1924 addressed a packed room in Des Moines.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou people have a right to know how a candidate for President stands on issues, and so far President Coolidge has not told you where he stands on anything\u2026 so I am going to call him before you tonight and ask him to take this chair and tell me where he stands.\u201d People in the auditorium began to crane their necks to see if Coolidge really was somewhere on the premises. I pulled a vacant chair and addressed it as though it had an occupant. \u201cPresident Coolidge,\u201d I began, \u201ctell us where you stand on Prohibition.\u201d I went on with rhetorical questions in this vein, pausing after each for a short period. Then I wound up: \u201cThere, my friends, is the usual silence that emanates from the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a possibility that the media may once again be able to question Republicans without relying on media releases. Reporters should wander out into the rotunda and talk to lobbyists, visitors, and anyone else out there. A serious outside-the-box suggestion would be to randomly call a constituent or two, or more, in a legislator\u2019s district to receive an indication of how a lawmaker\u2019s voters feel about the person.<\/p>\n

Slowly, like a frog sitting in a pot of cold water, the media in this state is waiting for the pot to boil. Waiting for those in power to determine when they might talk to reporters is not going to happen with the status quo.<\/p>\n

Journalists in the ICPA membership should not be afraid that the governor and the legislature might not cooperate with the media if the ICPA extends coverage to those not in power, the minority, certain lobbyists, constituents, and readership.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the worse that happen? Losing selected parking outside the Capitol?<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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This blog was written a little over two years ago as an op-ed. The newspaper to which it was submitted rejected it. Now that the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has recommended members of Congress cancel and never … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[936,1324,1323,1322],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-governor-kim-reynolds","tag-iowa-capitol-press-assn","tag-jack-whitver","tag-pat-grassley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}