WISH-TV reporter Jim Shella has a good blog post on former House minority leader, Pat Bauer’s, removal from that post entitled Why the Democrats ousted Pat Bauer.
He gives some behind the scenes details of Bauer’s leadership style. Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, but more of this kind of reporting (if we’re paying attention to process instead of the substantive details of legislation) would have been interesting while Bauer was inflicting his brand of leadership on his caucus.
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But will his replacement wear a hair piece?
Present company included, Shell and Howey are doing the best of covering Indiana Politics.
Good report from Shella (!) and you hit the nail on the head: “would have been interesting while Bauer was inflicting”.
I wonder if media were ‘kept in line’ by Bauer. Local media too often downplay the unseemly aspects of government, while ‘upplaying’ *all* the benefits of hosting a Super Bowl, etc. Ironically Shella has been one of the worst, with his kinder gentler brand of IWIW.
(cf: A local sportscaster states he has quite a bit of footage of Bob Knight going way more nuts than is commonly known, but local TV would never run it cuz if they did, Knight would shut out their station from IU coverage. )
My take is in line with Gene’s parenthetical. Media personalities are afraid of reporting meaningful items in the moment because they fear losing access to political personalities. Bauer’s out, therefore safe to report on Bauer.
And, certainly, the David Broder of Indiana, Mr. Shella would not upset the apple cart