ProgressOhio

If newspapers want to survive, they need to provide information quickly and efficiently that readers are not likely to obtain easily from other media.

Today's Dispatch, for example, has a "good news" piece by syndicated columnist Tom Teepen about final Congressional action on the Omnibus Public Lands Management Bill of 2009 (H.R. 146).  He writes:

"Forget the bum economy for a minute. You just got richer. We all did. A lot richer.

 

After years of dawdling and fussing, both abetted by an indifferent-to-antagonistic Bush administration, the House and Senate finally have passed an omnibus wilderness bill that will protect more than 2 million acres from despoliation. President Barack Obama was pleased to sign it.

The bill brings the highest level of federal protection to sites in nine states, from California to Virginia. Key sections of several national parks and monuments receive heightened security. A number of historic sites benefit.

National forests will be preserved against development encroachments. The nation's system of designated "wild and scenic" rivers will be extended by a thousand miles -- a 50 percent increase.

Our national parks, forests, historic sites and monuments are the nation's endowment, our trust fund for the country's future. They amount to a patrimony of incalculable worth."

See the complete column at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/04/01/teep01.ART_ART_04-01-09_A9_G6DDMGB.html?sid=101

But why, after reading Teepen's piece, should I have to spend another 15 minutes on the Internet tracking down the official name of the legislation, the bill number and how our Ohio representatives voted on the measure?

(FYI, all Ohio Republican representatives (including Pat Tiberi, Delaware) voted NO while all Ohio Democratic representatives (including Zack Space, Dover) voted YES.)

Instead, the timely reporting of how our representatives and senators in Washington vote is pretty hit-and-miss.  Even when the Dispatch's own Washington reporters write about legislative action, they often don't say how central Ohio congressmen voted, or only do so days later.

With congressional voting tallies now available virtually instantaneously through a number of Internet sites, why can't the newspaper help out its readers by automatically telling us not only about legislative action but about how our area congressmen voted?  Needless to say, most readers are not going to spend time doing their own research. 

The failure to track legislators' votes is even more problematic at the Ohio Statehouse.  But it's more understandable, since Statehouse voting is more difficult to track on a timely basis.