News-Record.com

By “we all,” I meant the assembled media, which included reps from most of the state’s bigger newspapers, the Associated Press, at least a couple radio reporters, some partisan types from the John Locke Foundation, a couple kids from UNC’s Daily Tar Heel and a few television news folks, a couple of who are regulars in the halls of the legislature and a few who struck me as not knowing a gavel from a granola bar.

All that assembled talent, salary, equipment and couture – when broadcast folks are around, you can’t forget the clothes – basically stood idle for the better part of four hours, trying to read the tea leaves of what was happening in that room. A few found a spot on the third floor balcony where they could try to read lips and emotions.

But basically we were stuck waiting for the end of the meeting to know anything for sure.

In a day and age in which news outfits are constantly trying to trim costs and figure out how to be different from one another, here we all were burning staff time like the Visigoths on a Roman holiday to report exactly the same story.

Also ringing in my head were the words of more than one person I’d heard from that week who had urged the press to delve into issues rather than “the politics of personality.” Wednesday night was all about the personality.

There are a few ways to look at this, here are a few:

• Despite our high-minded ideals, news organizations love us some scandal and there’s been no bigger scandal ‘round these parts than the fall of House Speaker Jim Black. Wednesday night was a key marker in that saga so the gang came out.

• The Black scandal may have illustrated just how important the position of Speaker is so we scrubby media types figured the likely choice for the next one was news. After all, you can make an argument that the guy will be one of the three most powerful elected officials in the state if confirmed by the full House.

• We scrubby media types, particularly in the newspaper set, are so myopically focuses on institutional coverage we can’t help but be consumed by the story of the minute down here in Cap City, even if it is an inside baseball sort of deal.

• Policy matters, but it’s personalities that get the policy done. If you’re interested in one, you better damned site keep track of the other.

Any honest evaluation of the evening would pick from all four of those columns and a couple more.

For my part, the ascension – tentative though it may be – of the next Speaker was a big story, particularly given the last year. It merited a local spin rather than leaving it to the AP.

Also, remember that the Dems weren’t just picking their Speaker that night. They were choosing the pro-temp as well as their majority leader. Two of our local legislators (local to Greensboro for those in other parts of the state) were realistically in the mix for those jobs: Rep. Hugh Holliman of Davidson County and Rep. Nelson Cole of Rockingham. Cole was a distant possibility for either speaker or majority leader; Holliman had gone after Speaker but then changed choice and set his sights on majority leader – a position he won.

Of course, the number of our readers who, even three weeks from now, could name the Speaker of the House of majority leader would probably depress me.