Busy Day, Terrible Play

It was perhaps the busiest day of the legislative session in Springfield yesterday, with lawmakers taking up issues ranging from the amount of out-of-state wine available to Illinoisans to legislation requiring cigarette companies to sell only self-extinguishing cigarettes, in the interest of reducing the number of homes burned down by smokers who fall asleep with their squares in their hands.

Everyday issues that connect with readers--I mean, we're talking wine and cigarettes. You don't need market research to tell you that folks might be interested. (You mean current law allows out-of-state wineries to ship only two cases to Illinois stores a year? And this isn't on the front page?)

You'd think the newspapers would be all over the goings-ons at the capitol. You'd think wrong.

True, the Chicago Tribune put a legislative story on its front page. It's just that it was the wrong one.

The Tribune chose to highlight the easy state senate approval of a bill that would limit the power of local governments to use eminent domain to grab private land. This action is similar to moves in state legislatures nationwide in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that endorsed the eminent domain powers of local governments.

The real story coming out of Springfield, though, was the defeat of a proposal to make accident records for used cars available to consumers. The used car dealer lobby does not want us to see those records.

Why is that a more important story than the eminent domain proposal? It might not be in the big picture, but it certainly is today. The eminent domain bill now moves to the House, and if passed there would go to the governor. There will be plenty of other days to report on its prospects and its potential impact. It also appears to face very little opposition.

The accident record bill, however, is dead. Now the story vanishes.

This was also a story of high political drama. According to the reporting, the bill was killed by the used car lobby, including the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association and the Chicago Automobile Trade Association. (Why not put photos of the executives of these fine organizations in the newspaper and submit them to questioning?)

But it did not go down without a helluva fight. The bill failed on a 28-26 roll call vote. The bill needed 30 votes for passage. (The eminent domain bill passed 44-2, with 10 senators voting present for unexplained reasons).

Chicago Sen. James Meeks, who sponsored the bill, said senators voting against it were intimidated by the auto dealers, who apparently are generous campaign contributors.

Republican Sen. Chris Lauzen, of Aurora, said the problem was about mistakes in the accident records that might mislead unwitting citizens, who apparently aren't smart enough to figure out for themselves what to believe. Perhaps Lauzen is projecting there.

"The problem with this bill is it creates a false sense of security when people rely on information that is late and inaccurate," Lauzen was quoted as saying by the Tribune.

Better to have the truer sense of security you get just by taking a used car dealer's word for it.

Over at the Bright One, they did better. But not better enough. The Chicago Sun-Times led its legislative roundup with the accident report proposal and went a little bit further than the Tribune in fleshing it out.

Reporter Tracy Swartz writes that opponents to the plan had concerns that inaccurate information might hurt vehicle sales. Accurate information, too.

Here's Fearless Frank Watson, the Republican from Greenville who is the Senate Minority Leader: "We can't talk about this being pro-consumer when actually the consumer is going to get wrong information potentially."

I'd like to propose a bill limiting citizens to access to information about candidates for public office because, you know, they might get the "wrong information." Potentially.

Of course, the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association and the Chicago Automobile Trade Association have contributed campaign cash to Watson, so he's not exactly an objective observer. I'm not saying he was bribed, just that the system works.

The only problem with the Sun-Times story is that it's too short, and it looks like its only purpose was to wedge something in back on Page 9 around a Nextel ad so there wasn't a thin blank strip across the top of the page.

All in all, our fair reporters and their editors just seem bored with the news. Perhaps wine, cigarettes, and used cars are just too declasse for them. Add that to the myriad reasons why newspapers are losing readers.

- cross posted on The Beachwood Reporter