My public policy journalism adventure began in 1972 when I returned to University of Missouri Journalism School to pursue a graduate degree that focused on public policy. Take a look at the courses panel for the public-policy courses I found the most valuable.

I covered Missouri's statehouse for a local radio station while in graduate school and then went on to be National Public Radio's congressional reporter covering, among other things, the start of the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal.

After a few months, I was recruited to establish the nation's first statehouse journalism school program in a state Capitol. It grew to became the Missouri Journalism School's first fully converged newsroom of print, radio, TV and new-media students.

My students provided statehouse stories for Missouri newspapers under an agreement with the Missouri Press Association, Missouri public radio stations, the university's commercial TV station and one of the world's first all-news website.

I was far more than an academic teacher, I provided near daily reports for the then CBS-operated station, KMOX in St. Louis as their statehouse correspondent (a position I still hold, although I've become very-much a part time reporter) as well as reports to the CBS Network on issues of national interest.

My KMOX reports and multi-week investigative documentaries on statehouse issues won numerous awards. I also served as the executive editor for a weekly half-hour report on statehouse issues for all of Missouri's public TV stations.

Click here about the courses that benefited my understanding about public policy.

Click here about my most important public policy mentors.



I fully understand the uncertainty experienced by a journalist walking into a confusing public policy enviromment.

I experienced the same when I entered Missouri's statehouse as a green government reporter more than 50 years. That experience helped me teaching generations of my students covering the statehouse for the first time.

In my faculty retirement, I created this site to help provide the same lessons I had taught my students that empowered them to become leading public policy journalists.

So much of journalism involves adversarial interactions with public officials. And, I must confess, I had a reputation as a "gotcha" journalist.

But I also learned so much from a less adversarial approach when just seeking a better understanding:

• Reach out to your more experienced public-policy journalist colleagues.

  I confess that we public-policy journalists tend to be skeptical of newbies walking into a process about which they have little understanding.

  But as I learned as a newbie, I found my more experienced colleagues eager to help if I simply asked for their advice.

  After all, we long-term public policy journalists committed our lives to explaining governmental and political developents to our audiences composed of many who have little or no understanding of the reality of the processes and issues we cover.

• Find public officials eager to help you understand the process.

  While we public-policy journalists tend to be skeptical about the objectives of those we cover, there were so many who helped me understand this process when I began as a public policy journalist.

  Attorney General Jack Danforth spent considerable time helping me understand the ethical issues he was facing in various governmentally and politically complicated issues.

  Mental Health Department Director Harold Robb, a medical psychiatrist, spent so many hours teaching me, in detail, about mental health, particularly sociopathic personalities.

  Robb knew I would encounter folks with mental health issues in my investigative reporting of prisons as well as his own department's mental health facilities. From Robb, I learned about sociopathic signs that will be displayed when someone is lying.

  The Missouri's legislature's most senior legislators spent considerable time helping me understand both the process and history when I simply asked them to help me understand.

  I still fondly remember the hours I spent with the first governor I covered. Gov. Warren Hearnes was so intense in helping me understand his motivations and the reasons for his growing fight with the state Senate.

  As NPR Congressional reporter with no congressional reporting experience, a similar approach helped learn so much U.S. House Banking Committee Chair Wright Patman who began the first congressional investigation into Watergate. He was instrumental in helping me understand complicated issues involving the money funneled to the Watergate defendants.

• Read archives of past stories in the area you're covering.

  I cannot exaggerate the degree to which the issues public policy journalists cover have histories that be years if not decades in duration.

  Often, a change in a position of the past can be a major development while, on the other hand, going down the same-years-long path can be of less significance.

  Reading those past stories also will help you understand when a key player may have shifted a position.

• Read public policy stories from around the country.

  Reading those stories will help you learn how we approach complicated governmental issues and processes. Make sure you study the exact wording used to translate this information to the general public.

  And also take note of the issues and actions that generate news stories. Covering the governmental and political process requires thinking outside the box and finding ways to make our stories meaningful and interesting to the general public.

  Just as important, issues of news in other states can give you a heads up of what might be possible stories in your own state.

• Do not hesistate to confess ignorance to a source.

  I am hesitant to offer this suggestion. An official or spokesperson with a history of hostility to the news media is not a source you want to confess ignorance.

  But with others I can trust, I've found it tremendously productive to admit I do not fully understand the issue and ask for the background.

  In recent years reporters have been characterized so often as opinionated advocates that it can create a barrier to a candid and informative interview.

  Just starting a question with the phrase "help me understand..." can open doors to sources that can become invaluable in future years.

Unfortunately, efforts to intimidate reporters has become a frequent tactic by politicans against reporters.

Donald Trump obviously is a major factor in his repeated charges we are liars and his near call for attacks against reporters at his rallies.

But another factor, I think, is the legal training of so many we cover in which they are taught to be aggressive. The growing trend of political consultants for attack-focused campaigns probably contributes to environment.

When I began as a public policy journalist, I think my youth and inexperience seemed to suggest I was vulnerable to being intimdated. So, below are a few personal examples that I hope can toughen you up:

• Attacks against you can empower you.:

  I learned that when in my first year covering Missouri's statehouse when the Senate majority leader angry with my stories spread a rumor to his colleagues that because of my long hair (at the time) I was akin to the former communist Leon Trosky.

  It didn't work. That Senate leader had so many opponents that they became some of my most important long-term sources because is attacks.

• A public attack against you can rally defenders.:

  This example arose when I was covering a legislative measure to legalize gambling by veteran organizations that regularly violated the gambling ban.

  So, I went to a veteran organization to interview veterans participating in what then was illegal. In response, an organization leader confronted me threatening physical assault if I did not give him my recorder.

  But other veterans at the gambling game came to the scene defending my right to interview veterans who voluntarily agreed to be interviewed. I left with my recorder and the story.

• You colleagues will respect you.:

  That was demonstrated when a Post-Dispatch reporter came under an effort by Missouri's governor for a criminal investigation of a reporter for disclosing that the state Education Department's website disclosed Social Security numbers of teachers.

  Nothing came of the governor's effort for a criminal charge, but the reporter was awarded a national Ethics-In-Journalism award for the story.

  It was an example of how your colleagues will respect you when a politican or public offical attemps to intimidate you.

• You can gain respect from lawyers and other experienced public officials by tough questions.:

  I learned that from former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway when she responded to one of my more pointed questions by responding "Phill, that's a gotcha question."

  She was correct, but then answered my question. My direct questions helped establish an invaluable relationship I had with her that I could ask tough questions. I have no doubt her background as a practicing attorney contributed to her acceptance of tough questioning.

  Another example of the adversarial tactics of lawyers arose when I assigned one of my reporters to interview the sponsor of a bill to establish rights to carry concealed weapons.

  Sen. Harold Caskey was legally blind and he told me that made him the only legislator without a conflict of interest in the bill since would be ineligible. Fascinating angle to the issue.

  But my reporter came back visibly shaken. Caskey attacked her for raising his physical condition as an issue.

  I promptly went to Caskey's office reminding him that he had told me about the lack of a conflict of interest in his bill and to to my question if it was OK for me pass that story to one of my reporters, he responded positively.

  I had frequent off-the-record conversations with Caskey, so I felt obligated to assure our conversation was on-the-record.

  When I asked Caskey why he berated my reporter, he essentially responded, "Phill, I was trying to toughen up the reporter" and confirmed he was quite willing to discuss the issue.

  Caskey was a lawyer and former county prosecutor, so I understood from where he was coming.

  While I was a bit upset with Caskey, I have no doubt my reporter learned a tremendous lesson when I told her Caskey's response to me.

• Do not hesitate to try to soften your questioning.:

  I offer this suggestion with a bit of hesitancy. I do not mean, at all, to apologize for a tough question.

  But sometimes it helps to attribute the source of an accusation in a question.

  Or, preface a question with, "As I am sure you are aware..."

• Do not hesitate to admit your own ignorance about an issue.:

  So often I'd say something like, "I did not fully understand your proposal. Was it your intent...?"

  That approach often would cause my source to open up with candor.

• Realize some public figures deliberately will try to intimidate you.:

  Don't limit that thought to the obvious efforts of Trump.

  I ran into that with a governor at a news conference who made an accusation and then, out of thin air, remarked, "don't laugh Phill, you know it's true."

  I wasn't laughing. Gov. Kit Bond's apparent attempt to intimidate intimidate me was a surprise because Bond's administration was part of a reform wave in Missouri government that opened up the process to for journalists. In fact, Bond's aides were among some of my most valuable sources.

  More recently, Gov. Mike Parson refused to take questions from a reporter falsely attacking the non-profit funding sources of his news organization.

  It reminded me of 1974 when President Richard Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal and tried a similar intimidation tactic against CBS Correspondent Dan Rather who rose to ask a question in an auditorium where the crowd cheered Rather when he rose.

  It pompted Nixon with a grin on his face to ask "are you running for something?"

  Rather than being intimidated, Rather responded "no mister president, are you?"

  To this day, I'm not sure Rather's response to a sitting president was proper, but it sure displayed spunk that Rather was not intimidated.

• Think of yourself as an actor playing a role on stage.:

  It would surprise many of my colleagues to read this confession that in my early years in crowded news conference I was intimidated by asking probing questions beyond the original subject of the news conference.

  After all, I was new to the process and did not fully understand the issues nor the environment.

  What I discovered was that simply considering myself playing out a role and that the attempt to personally embarrass me was just an attack on the role I was performing as a journalist.

  In a way that's true and I found that it helped to realize efforts of intimidation was just an attack on myh role as a journalist, not me personally. 

• Read the actual bills, resolutions and administrative rules: Staff summaries can be incomplete and written by folks who are not focused on highlighting what's news. Besides that, it's not uncommon for a public official to try to sneak in stuff that may be missed by a beginning staffer.

  It's actually not that difficult to read most rules and bills. Besides, learning how to read legal and regulatory language will help you better understand the impact of a proposed amendment when it's offered

• Pay attention to effective date and final approval provisions: It's not unusual that a measure will have a delayed effective date.

  A measure signed by the governor or president does not immediately take effect upon signature. Besides normal delays before becoming effective, there can be clauses that further delay the effective date considerably.

  And, for a state proposal, also take a look whether a bill actually requires approval by the governor when it clears the legislature.

  In Missouri, lawmakers can submit a measure to state voters for approval rather than requiring gubernatorial approval. And constitutional amendments always require voter approval.

• What prompted this proposal?: Always ask yourself this question when you start covering a proposal. It can be pressure from a well financed special interest, from a court decision, from political pressure, from a local dispute and sometimes from an actual new or expanded problem facing the public.

• Bookmark a link to state or federal laws: One problem with fully understanding a rule, resolution or bill is that it can have references to a law that significantly changes the impact of the proposal.

  Make sure you follow those links. And pay particular attention to the definition section.

• Also bookmark a link to the Supreme Court of the government you're covering: Often a proposal will be prompted by a court decision that substantially changed or invalidated an existing law.

  But often, it's a lower court decision that prompts a proposal. That can make identifying the court decision more difficult.

  A simple question of what prompted someone to sponsor a proposal can help identify a court decision that prompted the proposal.

  Also, some online statute links will have annotations of court decisions that affect the law.

• Do not rely soley on news releases: Instead, dig out the underlying actual documents.

  This point was demonstrated profoundly in the middle of the 2020 Missouri special session.

  The Republican governor issued a news release that expanding the session for lawmakers to consider giving the state attorney general to prosecute St. Louis city murder cases, but only if the locally elected prosecutor had failed to prosecue within 90 days after police and had made an arrest and only if the police department requested the attorney general to prosecute.

  It made his proposal sound like it respected local control. But it was not true.

  The official proclamation filed with the secretary of state authorized the legislature to hand the state attorney general to prosecute anytime he wanted. There was no requirement for a police deartment request nor a 90 day period of inaction by the local prosecutor.

• Read the rules: Understanding the process you're covering is essential. In covering a complicated process, it helps to know what's the next step for a proposal.

  And understanding the process will help you quickly realize when a parliamentary tactic is invoked to accelerate or stall a proposal.

• There's always more than one side to a public policy issue: If there was not disagreement, a public policy issue would have been settled years if not decades earlier.

  And don't think opposition is a simple split between supporters and opponents. Often there are factions with different objectives and/or views that can provide a far more intriguing story.

• Learn about the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: The "Equal Protection" amendment was adopted shortly after the Civil War to assure equal protection rights for freed Black slaves by states.

  But over the years, the impact of that amendment has been expanded significantly by the courts.

  The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court "Brown v. Board of Education" that prohibited segregated public schools was based on the 14th Amendment.

  Since then, that has been expanded involving gay rights and abortion rights.

  A major U.S. Supreme Court decision involves government "entitlement" programs that provide a service. Essentially government cannot deny an entitlement to anyone meeting the requirements for that program.

  So, a state legislature cannot cut the Medicaid budget to the degree it would deny Medicaid services to anyone who meets the eligibility requirements for Medicaid.

  Years ago, a federal court even threatened to take control of a state's budget if it could not provide mental health services to all who met the eligibility requirements.

• Understand political cultures: While political party differences are a major component in public coverage, don't make the mistake of considering political affiliation to be the only factor dividing public officials.

  Religion and race are obvious areas of potential divide for some issues.

  Geography, I've often found, was more significant than party. So many issues I've covered over the years involved deep splits based on urban, suburban and rural divisions.

  Over the years, the growing partisan divide in our country has overshadowed those demographic factors, but they remain significant.

  Years ago, a political scientist, Daniel Elazar, developed a theory about political differences based on political cultures he identified across the country that arose partially from various immigration waves into the country.

  Missouri actually has more separate political cultures mapped by Elazar than any other state. It makes sense, settlers in Missouri include significant German, Italian, French populations and, of course, slaves.

  Phill: In my early years, Elazar's book was a tremendous assistance to help me better understand the differences I was encountering with legislators from different areas of the state.

  It helped me significantly to understand the substantial differences between Democratic legislators from Kansas City and those from St. Louis.

• Learn the history of the various regions: History can have a tremendous impact on different political cultures that can impact the ideology and voting patterns of the folks you are covering.
  Phill: My first lesson about that was when I was covering the legislative Black Caucus. There was a tremendous split between Kansas City and St. Louis Blacks.

  At the time, Kansas City Blacks focused on Black issues such as police tactics.

  On the other hand, St. Louis City Blacks were more focused on politics and political gains.

  Black legislators told me it was a consequence of the 1968 Kansas City protests in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King.

  Black leaders objected so loudly to Gov. Warren Hearnes calling out the National Guard that he froze out Black politicians from the Kansas City area from lucrative patronage appointments -- effectively handing patronage jobs and political power to St. Louis Blacks. That led Kansas City Blacks to focus greater attention on policy issues.

  Another geographic issue arose from the Civil War.

  I always had been puzzled about the conservative bent of a few Democratic legislators in a small area of western Missouri.

  The answer came from Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder who told me that the region had been burned by Union troops during the Civil War in retaliation for southern support -- creating a culture more conservative and less trusting in government.

One of the most powerful tools we public policy reporters have are freedom of information laws that give his legal rights to both government records and meetings.

Below are suggestions on how to use those laws and, at times, get around them:

• Know the law and be ready to cite it:

  I learned this lesson shortly after Missouri's Sunshine law was adopted when a the Mental Health Commission refused to allow my access.

  Simply after reading the simply and very clear legal language of Missouri's Sunshine Law requiring such meetings to be open, they caved and allowed my presence.

• Use any legal right to demand public records:

  Legal rights to demand access to public records provide us with a powerful tool to demand access to record that government officials want to keep secret.

  The process for filing such a demand can be complicated. But do not let that discourage you.

  The lack of a response or an agency excuse citing costs or time to process the demand can be a powerful part of a story about an agency delaying access.

• Ask what is the problem providing this information:

  When you encounter an agency delaying access to FOI information, the response to that question or the lack of the response can be a significant compoment to your story.

• Make it clear that refusal to provide access or information is going to be a story:

  That can have a profound impact when an official realizes blocking the public's right to know likely will be a story.

  So, ask why access or information is being denied. Ask what legal justification there is for the refusal. Ask if the official's supervisor approved the rejection.

  If it's board or commission, ask if any vote was taken for rejection of admission or access to records.

• Pursue any response with your recorder or cell recorder:

  If you encounter a government official who refuses to respond to your question, record your efforts.

  Describing or showing how the official refused to even respond to a legitmate question make your story more powerful. government.

• Find out who else was seeking the same information:

  That can avoid you making the story just a gripe about your own effort to get the information.

  Having others with interests in the issue frustrated by denial of government information can make your story far more powerful.

• For broadcasters, simply do a live/recorded report outside the closed meeting:

  So many times when my reporters were denied access to an official or meeting, I'd recommend they simply do a TV standup or audio recording outside the officials office that blocked access.

  It provides a more powerful story. But, also, if the official hears what is being voiced for a story, it can open up doors.

• Pursue a response with your recorder or cell recorder:

  If you encounter a government official who refuses to respond to your question, record your efforts.

  Describing or showing how the official refused to even respond to a legitmate question make your story more powerful. government.

  And sometimes, when that official that he/she is being recorded it can have a profound impact.

• FOI laws are not the only method to get information bureaucrats to hide:

  Well before Missouri's Sunshine Law, I often would go to the chair of a legislative committee with appropriation power or oversight of the agency from which I was seeking information.

  Another powerful resource was the governor's office where there frequently was a staffer would get on the phone and essentially order an official under the governor's direction to provide me with the requested information or document.

  To be honest, I always felt a bit uncomfortable using people I was covering to be agents to get information. But before FOI laws, it was about the only vehicle.

  Even with Missouri's Sunshine Law, I've found my old approach often to be faster than the tedious process for demanding documents.

  But on the other side, many of my statehouse journalism colleagues have made Sunshine Law demands a regular practice.

I must make a confession in this page. I was involved in the crafting the 1973 Missouri Sunshine Law.

When a pretty weak version of that proposed law was passed by the Senate and sent to the House, Mo. House Judiciary Committee Chair Harold Volkmer asked for my advice on how the law could help empower reporters who would be major users of the new law.

I urged the law to be concise and in simple language so public officials could understand their obligations for public access and that the law also allow video and audio recording of meetings open for public access.

The broadcast access I recommended was rejected by the Senate, although the legislature ultimately added a specific right for recording of meetings.

As for simplicity in the requirements for openness, that got messed up with various amendments the legislature added over the years providing exemptions.

A Missouri chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist produced a wallet-size copy of the Missouri Sunshine Law that reporters quickly could pull out when demanding access to government meetings or records. 

But having sources you can trust and are candid is particularly important for public policy reporters because of the degree that process and players in government so often try to hide information or manipulate coverage.

So what follows are some suggestions:

• Don't treat lobbyists as pariahs: Some lobbyists can be valuable sources.

  Many have years of experience working in government. And while many represent wealthy special interests, some have a deep commitment to government and the process. In fact, some lobbyists started out as nonpartisan public officials.

  One of the most important source on state finances for Missouri statehouse reporters has been a former state budget director and commissioner of administration.

  Although representing business concerns as a lobbyist, Jim Moody has a passion to help reporters understand budget and tax issues.

  Beyond that, many lobbyists can have extensive an extensive network of contacts from which they can provide useful information about what's going on or pass along the names of potentially useful sources.

  But understand, many lobbyists while eager help reporters understand issues, are reluctant to become quoted sources.

• Confidential sources are critical to public policy coverage: While some newsrooms are understandably reluctant to allow unnamed sources in stories, confidential sources are essential to meaningful coverage of government and politics.

  That's because the motivations and tactics behind public policy so often involve factors that might upset the general public such as campaign contributions, crass political objectives and closed-door deals.

  Phill: Many of the off-the-record discussions I've had did not require an extensive negotiation. Instead, frequently when I was trying to understand an issue, not get a comment, I'd start a conversation volunteering it was not for attribution if knew it would make the source more comfortable in talking candidly with me -- particularly lobbyists.

  But I rarely cited a single, unnamed source in my stories. And I had a firm policy for my newsroom that no factual claim could be reported unless independently verified by another source or document.

  A frequent exception would be when a legislative leader confided off the record a plan or position. In that case, I didn't need independent verification because I heard it directly from a leader.

  So, I could report a top House/Senate leader said something without disclosing the name. Beyond that, if more than a few told me the same thing, I could write something akin to "Legislative leaders say their members have concerns about..."

  Also, confidential information can gave you information you can use to pry more meaningful public responses from key players.

  Finally, so many of the best public policy stories come from tips by sources who do not want to be named.

  "I never knew of an investigative story that didn't start with a snitch," long-time St. Louis Post-Dispatch Statehouse Reporter Fred Lindecke joked years ago.

• Don't rule out developing insignificant players as sources: One of the most frequent and valuable information as source can provide you is an understanding as to what's going on behind closed doors such as party caucuses or agency meetings with staffers.

  Many without power are more eager to confide with you. Some are bitter at not having power or being stripped of power. Sources new to the process may feel less constrained by complying with agency or caucus secrecy rules.

  Phill: I learned this lesson very early in my statehouse reporting career from Democrat Sen. Earl Blackwell. He had been ousted as the Senate's top leader because of major fight with the Democratic governor over a tax increase.

  Many reporters dismissed Blackwell as a bitter old man. He was bitter, but that made him even more eager to tell give me dirt on his Senate colleagues whom he felt had betrayed him.

  He was bitter, but I sure learned a lot about the Senate skeletons in the closet that impacted on votes and political alliances.

• Regularly walk the hallways: Brief, informal sessions with lobbyists and public officials often can lead to candid and useful information.

  Many in public office are constrained in candor when in formal sessions like an office interview or news conference.

  Elevators are great places for quick questions.

  Phill: One of my more important interviews came years ago with the Senate's top leader standing next to a urinal.

  He had blocked the lieutenant governor from the Senate chamber to preside. But the Senate leader refused our requests to exit the chamber for a short interview about his reasons.

  But knowing nature would take its course, I just waited until he went to the bathroom next to the Senate chamber.

  To my surprise, he was not upset at my presence while he was urinating. In fact, after he had finished that task, he provided a candid and lengthy explanation.

• But do NOT make the mistake of asking in a crowded hallway for information that's supposed to be kept confidential:

  That kind of query needs to be made in a private setting where there's no chance a colleague will hear or your source spilling the beans, or even suspecting secretes are being disclosed if you're seen talking with the source after a closed meeting.

  Phill: There was a clear demonstration as to the importance of this lesson demonstrated in a story published just a few days before I added this suggestion.

  The story essentially reported that a Republican legislator refused to provide information when approached in the hallway about an hour-long caucus session on handing the Republican governor a major legislative defeat.

  Of course he refused to comment to a reporter as he and his colleagues were leaving the caucus. Members are not supposed to disclose information about closed-door caucus discussions.

  Yet, I cannot remember a single time I could not get a complete picture of a major closed-door caucus session if I limited my interviews to legislators' private offices where colleagues could not see them betraying the caucus.

• Look for mavericks, they can be your most valuable sources: A party maverick has nothing to lose. They likely have little power except for that granted in an effort to keep them, at least partially, in line.

  Beyond that, if those with real power suspect you're getting accurate inside information from a maverick, the power players will be reluctant to give you a dishonest or misleading answer.

  Even better, it may cause a power player to be more open with you in an effort to better defend his/her actions suspecting you probably know the full truth anyway.

  Phill: I learned this lesson from my years covering the Senate's leading Republican maverick, Rob Schaaf. From from bitter, he was frustrated by what he saw as a system that did not always put public interest as the top of the agenda. He saw "dark money" -- campaign money from undisclosed sources -- as a major source for corruption in government and the legislature.

  The Senate's top leader and former House speaker, Ron Richard, was fully aware I was getting piles of inside information from Schaaf.

  More than once as he provided me with an indepth and informative reply, he'd preface his comments acknowledging his suspicion I already understood what was going on because of Schaaf.

• Keep an eye on the new players you think make be too green: Make a point to introduce yourself to the new legislators and government officials who seem to have the possibility of becoming major players in future years that could be invaluable sources.

  Look for folks seeking to implement change, rather than just treading water for political advancement.

  Look for folks who have that special set of skills and qualities that can be a foundation for moving into positions of power -- or, of course, those with massive special interest support.

  Phill: Missouri's most powerful lobbyist, the late John Britton, helped me understand this lesson.

  Soon after I realized his power, I asked him how he developed his influnce. A WWII veteran who parachuted into Normandy on the eve of the invasion, Britton never hesitated in answering a question in a blunt manner if you had the courage to ask it.

  He told me he always kept an eye on he new legislators to identify who had what it takes to move into positions of power. And then, he made a point to mentor them to better understand the process and how to succeed.

  Sure enough, much of Britton's influence arose from top legislative leaders he had mentored when they were first starting out.

  I never mentored politicans. That's not the job of journalists.

  But from Britton I gained a better understanding about the importance for laying the foundation for developing source relationships with those who likely are going to be significant players.

  In other words, development of sources with public policy journalists regularly do with current major players in the process, also should include those who will be players in the future.

• Have courage: Have the courage to walk up to complete strangers and ask questions on subjects about which you know little or nothing.

  That's a key attribute in covering government with such an extensive array of complicated issues that it's nearly impossible to fully understand or even know about all of the emerging potential issues of news importance.

  Phill: So many times when I've seen my student reporters spending hours surfing the web from our statehouse bureau office. I'd tell them it was a waste of time to spend the time to drive to the Capitol if they were going to confine their time locked into their computer.

  I realized it was caused by the understandable apprehension of a young, beginning reporter to confront powerful officials whom they never had met.

  So, I'd often had such a student walk with me in the Capitol hallways as I'd greet a legislator or lobbyist and simply ask "what's new" or "what's going on."

• Keep in touch with sources after they leave: Retired legislative leaders tend to be more willing to talk about the details of legislative secrets that can help you better understand how the process works.

  Out of office and with no future political ambitions, these term-limited former legislators had no reason to keep secrets.

  Beyond that, they often maintain contact with officials still in office and so have an insider's understanding of what was going on.

• Make sure to get contact information from a new source: Ask for a business card that includes a cell-phone number.

  If you're a broadcast reporter and source as an unusual name, ask the source to say her/his name at the start of the recording so you can save it to make sure you correctly pronounce the source's name.

  Then, add a pronunciation guide for the source in an office database you ought to maintain of names regularly used for which the pronunciations are not obvious.

  If the source is a lawyer or lobbyist before a governmental hearing, ask whom the source is representing.

• Don't dismiss ideas from older sources:
  Phill: I make with this suggestion because I fear a few younger reporters may discount my suggestions because of my age as the longest-serving Missouri statehouse reporter.

  I learned that lesson when covering Congress for NPR and failed to pursue a tip that could have been a huge break in the beginning of the Watergate scandal because the source was an old man with an absurd suggestion.

  The source was Rep. Wright Patman, a Texas Democrat and chair of the House Banking Committee.

  He quickly became a go-to source for me partially because part of my childhood was in Texas and, like Patman, I was one of the few wearing cowboy boots in the nation's Capitol.

  One day, he told me that Pres. Richard Nixon's reelection campaign was laundering money through off-shore banks to pay off the Watergate burglars.

  While I loved hearing Patman's stories of Congress going back to 1929, I disbelieved his Watergate tip. I wrote it off as a delusion of his old age (he passed just a few years after that conversation).

  Besides, the chair of Nixon's reelection committee was a former U.S. attorney general and the committee's treasurer had been the Commerce Department secretary. It just was a story too good to be true.

  Well, we now know Patman and his House Banking Committee staff got it right. Campaign money had been laundered for the Watergate burglars.

• Hand out your own business card: Politicians regularly hand out business cards to reporters in hopes we'll contact them for future stories.

  For us, a business card might prompt you getting a call when somebody wants to give a story to a reporter.

• Dress appropriately: This is particularly important if you are a young, beginning reporter in government.

  Realize that for many elected officials, except for their times in government buildings, church may be the only other time they were business-dress clothes.

  The general approach is to dress in a fashion that your attire does not became a liability in reporting. Wearing a suit would become an obstacle walking in a flooded farm field to interview a flood victim.

  But wearing shorts and a tee-shirt in the Capitol also can be a liability.

  Some locations or times allow for more relaxed dress. An outdoor political rally in the heat of the summer is an example. In Missouri's Capitol, Friday is a more relaxed dress day if the legislature is not in session.

  If in doubt, just look a how senior reporters dress. But also realize, the most senior reporters have leeway in dress because they're already earned respect from their coverage.

  Phill: So many times, I've seen public officials effectively blow off a reporter or provide a meaningless simplistic response because the reporter was dressed like a school kid rather than a professional.

• Treat support staff with respect: A public official's secretary or administrative aide can be a tremendous resource or a major barrier to obtaining access to an official.

  Kindness and respect can go a long way.

  A secretary can put you ahead of others waiting for access if the staffers trusts you when you indicate you're under deadline and have just one brief question to confirm something.

  And sometimes, if that staffer trusts you, the staffer might provide the confirmation you need.

  Also, some office support will have more seniority than their bosses. They've got institutional memory that can be of tremendous help in understanding the background of an issue.

  Good staffers will not betray their bosses by disclosing confidential information. But some will share information they know their bosses would not mind being shared to trusted reporters.

  Phill: A perfect example of this value was secretary of the University of Missouri Board of Curators whom I developed as a source back when I was working my way as a local reporter while at student at the university's journalism school.

  Back then, curator meetings were completely closed to reporter access.

  But, the curators had failed to close the written minutes of their meetings.

  So, every month after the minutes had been transcribed, she'd call me to let me know there were minutes I might want to read -- also warning me that if anyone learned I was reading those minutes, they'd be closed.

  Regularly, I could play one curator against another by mentioning positions taken. Each curator would assume the other curator was leaking private information to me. They never discovered it was those written meeting minutes that was the start of the thread that got them to open up.

  In case you're wondering, that board secretary passed decades ago. So I'm not betraying a source -- she'd be delighted I was passing this on for future reporters.

• Finally, don't rule out other reporters as sources: Working collectively in a Capitol building or Capital, away from the home newsroom, tends to make us less competitive -- particularly because we're serving different markets.
  Phill: As a beginning statehouse reporter, my colleagues were tremendous resources -- a role I now try to play for today's beginning statehouse reporters.

• Don't avoid tough questions: Public officials, particularly lawyers and those with legislative experience, are used to and comfortable with tough, aggressive questioning.

  So, tough questions demonstrate you're not a lightweight.

  In fact, that approach can earn you respect with both the public official you're interviewing as well as colleagues.

  In addition, you're more likely to get straight answers if you demonstrate you will not pacifally accept a misleading answer or an answer that completely dodges your question.

  Phill: I learned that lesson in my first year covering Missouri's statehouse. My tough questioning aggravated the Senate's majority leader.

  In conversations with colleagues, he began referring to me as a Leon Trotsky, the Marxist revolutionary.

  But that majority leader had growing group of opponents among senior senators. And his absurd description of me gained me invaluable, powerful sources that lasted for years.

• But avoid gotcha questions: These are questions in which you try to trap or surprise an official into a candid response.

  As a broadcast reporter, I realize gotcha questions are almost standard in an effort to get a direct and short response from an official offering rambling and vague responses.

  But too many broadcast reporters use gotcha questions designed just to get a simple and emotional response.

  A gotcha question can lead your source to conclude you are so ignorant of the issue that a more precise, meaningful question was not possible.

  In Missouri, this tactic has contributed to some public officials limiting reporter access. To some officials.

  Phill: I still ask an occasional question that might be interpreted as a gotcha effort, but I've tried to limited it to when necessary. Yet, as a long-time broadcast reporter, I still ask gotcha questions without thinking.

  I learned that from a Missouri House speaker whose undergraduate degree was in journalism before law school.

  So, Catherine Hannaway knew when I asked a gotcha question. Because the long-term reporting relationship I had with her, she felt free to immediately reprimand me before answering the question.

  Every time, I did not intend a gotcah question. She was so candid, blunt and precise in her answers that there was no need for a gotcha question. It was just out of habit.

  Catherine's remonstrances made me wonder if there are other public officials who instantly recognize a gotcha question and conclude the reporter is a lightweight just going after a short, emotional audio/video clip rather than real information.

• Listen for conditions in answers: Words like "if" or "when" often are used as dodges by public officials.

  If a public official promises to take some sort of action, but then adds a condition at the end of the sentence, you cannot report he or she promised to take action.

  And make sure you ask the follow up question asking what the official mean by an if or when condition.

• Is there anything else I should ask: That question can be a tremendous way to end an interview.

  At times, the public official knew about an issue of greater importance that he or she was eager to talk about.

  And, sometimes the response to that question will cause the source to provide background information concerning aspects of the issue he or she realized you did not fully understand because a particular question was not asked.

• Use technically correct phrases in your questions: That tremendously can improve your credibility with your sources if you're starting as a government reporter.

  While the stories we ultimately write should use easily-understood, using the correct language with public officials can help in getting comprehensive responses.

  Phill: A demonstration of that arose when I was interviewing the Senate's top leader in his office.

  He got a call from a reporter in his local district with a question to which Sen. Norman Merrill gave a terribly simplistic answer that did not actually answer the question.

  Because Merrill had been one of my most candid and honest sources, I asked why he gave such a potentially misleading answer.

  Merrill's response essentially was "Phill, if I provided a comprehensive answer, he wouldn't have understood it and would conclude I was trying to evade the issue."

  Good point! I didn't agree with misleading a local reporter, but I also realized that if Merrill, a former school teacher, tried to conduct a lesson he probably would have been blown off. But, we'll never know.

• Why won't you answer the question: That's a powerful question when a public official refuses to answer a question or responds to something you did not ask.

  It takes the person you're interviewing off guard, maybe enough so that he actually gives an honest answer.

• Ask what prompted your proposal, not why:: This may seem a minor issue, but I've found it a useful approach.

  When you ask a public official why he or she did something, you're seek for a disclosure of motivations. That question may cause the source to become defensive, for example not wanting to disclose that the reason may have been to reward a contributor.

  Asking what prompted something is less threatening. So, I've found it's more likely to lead to an honest answer -- such as the issue was requested by a particular business or organization.

  And, you always can follow up with asking about any potential interests with the person or organization that prompted the proposal.

• Consider a tick-tock question: This is a journalistic term for a chronological list of the steps or actions that led to something.

  The process for public policy issues can be so complex that sometimes a tick-tock response can provide an interesting sidebar to your story.

  Besides that, the answer might reveal influences on a proposal you had not considered or did not know about.

  And, if a source leaves out an important step that you do know about, it raises an immediate question of why that step is being hidden.

  It can suggest there's more to it. And you can follow up with something like, "Senator you didn't mention that just days before you sponsored the bill, you got a large campaign contribution from.."

News conferences by public officials and politicians present an unusual opportunity, but also a challenge for reporters.

They frequently are crowded. A TV crew may try to dominate the session to turn it into personal performance session.

And public officials may cut the session short to cut off probing follow ups.

Sometimes, even an extended "news conference" can be turned into a "media moment" by a long-winded speech by the official and maybe other officials with only a few questions by reporters with the offical then promptly walking out of the conference.

So, here are some lessons to deal a with tightly controlled news conference that amounts to a "media moment:"

• Don't get trapped into a news conference subject: A public official facing a potentially damaging issue often will schedule a news conference on a completely different and less important issue.

  Missouri's recent governor has had a near parade of administration officials talking about an unimportant issue in an effort to distract us from asking about the biggest issue facing the executive.

  Don't fall into that trap. Don't feel obligated to ask about the insignificant issue of the news conference.

  Just remember, that official is just trying to use you. And remember that your primary responsibility is to seek answers to the biggest issues for your readers, listeners or viewers.

• But don't showboat: Don't use the limited time of a news conference to make it a performance to show off your knowledge or aggressiveness.

  That often will lead to a less responsive answer and undermine your reputation both with the official and your colleagues.

  When time is limited, use it efficiently for the benefit of all your colleagues.

• Don't ask two unrelated things in a question: That's particularly important with short news conferences. When you try to pile more than one issue into a question, you provide the public official or politician with the opportunity to answer the least difficult question and then recognize another reporter.

• Also don't ask a long winded in a question: Again, that's important in a short news conference. A questions that begins with sentences justifying the query or providing background just provides an opportunity for the official to argue with the preface to your question rather than providing a direct answer.

• Don't get trapped into an argument by the official: That's a common tactic of Pres. Donald Trump at his news conferences that I've seen Missouri's governor adopt. I fear it may become a pattern for public officials.

  That recently happened in Missouri.

  Gov. Mike Parson was asked if he felt responsible for the rising COVID-19 infections and deaths because of his early opening of business in the state.

  The governor's response included asking if the reporter if she felt responsible for her stories.

  Don't let a politician turn the tables to grill you.

  A good response might be something like, "I'd be delighted to discuss that question with you in another session, but my question was..."

• Don't let public officials ignore a legitimate question: This advice is offered because of the number of times at a news conference a public official blow off a reporter's question and then call upon another reporter who asks a completely different question.

  Realize, when you do that, you empower the public official to avoid a legitimate inquiry.

  Years ago in Missouri's statehouse such an effort immediately would have been followed by something akin to "you didn't answer my colleague's question, so what is your answer to...?"

  Unfortunately, with the decreasing time for news conferences with public officials, there's more pressure on the reporter to ask her/his question rather than backing up a colleague who has been blown off.

  But before asking your own question, ponder whether the official evading your colleague's question is an indication that the prior question might be of greater news significance than what you were going to ask.

  And also ponder whether if by not pursuing a colleague's question you empowering that official to blow you off when you ask an awkward, significant question.

• Other "media moment" ideas: When an official promptly walks out of a news conference without providing ample time for questions, simply grab you microphone or recording device and record you loudly asking the official your question.

  So often, the official turns his/her back to reporter when we still have questions to ask. That provides a great description about how the official treated reporters. But it also makes great video for TV and a great photo for print.

  I realize this might seem a bit theatrical.

  But as public-policy journalists, when a government leader refuses to address a major public-policy issue confronting that leader, we have a professional obligation to report that evasion to the general public.



Realize, the jobs of many of the people we cover depends upon public support either because they are subject to re-election or work for those who are.

So, they've got a direct financial and/or career interest in assuring public support and diverting stories that would cast a critical light on themselves or their bosses.

This is such dominant issue for us that it is a separate panel on how to deal with a false statement from a public official.

• Seek sources who can dispute the claim: Don't hesitate to repeat what you think is a false response from a source to others including opposition party members and those with grudges against the source.

  Not only can it provide an essential addition to your story, it might cause the original source to be more forthright answer from the original source when told the response.

• Think about reasons for a possible false or misleading response: Sometimes, that can lead you to a question that will prompt a more honest answer.

  A question that begins akin to "I realize that you cannot fully answer my question, but..." can lead to a fuller response than I expected.

• Dig up independent information for your question: If you've got a document or other information that justifies the question and demonstrates you may know the correct answer, it can lead to a more honest response.

  When a source realizes you instantly will recognize a false or misleading response, it can provide pressure for a response that is more connected with the truth.

• Don't hesitate to use a trick question: Often you can get an honest response by asking a question in a way that caused the source to think I already knew the truth.

  Do not lie!. Real journalists don't do that. But a question like "why would the party caucus vote to..." is not dishonest. Rather, the verb "would" rather than "did" makes it a conditional question which is not dishonest.

  Phill: So often I've found such a trick question would caused a source to think I have another source who spilled party secrets.

  For years, teaching my students this approach, I'd take one or two with me as I sought to discover a closed-door party caucus answer. It usually took just a few legislators before they full details were divulged.

  I frequently played this game when I was covering the University of Missouri Board of Curators when their meetings were behind closed doors. There were two curators fierce opponents of each other, but who were my best sources.

  The first one I called I'd ask a question that might lead him to falsely assume his opponent had spilled the beans to me and would respond in detail.

  Again, I never lied or misled. Instead, I'd ask a conditional question based on what I suspected had been an agenda item.

• Play one source against another: Part of this strategy involves getting a tidbit of information from one source that you can use to pry more information from a second source.

  "Did you talk about..." followed by an obvious topic of a closed party caucus could be a question to the first source. If the response is something like "of course" it provides you with leverage with other sources.

  To a second source, you could start a question with "I know you talked about..." and the second source would assume I already knew all the details.

  Phill: I used that technique to break the story the US planned military action in response to capture of the USS Mayaguez in 1975 if Cambodia not release the ship.

  In a campaign to assure American resolve in the aftermath of Richard Nixon's resignation and the Vietnam War collapse, Secretary of State Henry Kissenger went across the country for secret briefings with state legislators stressing the administration's strength.

  Using the techniques described above, I quickly got multiple legislative confirmations about the Pueblo plans that I reported to NPR.

  I was not breaking government secrecy. Legislators told me the US already had warned Cambodia of military action if the ship was not released. But for various reasons including national security concerns, we never aired the story.

• Do not ignore a false statement: Instead report it.

  That sends a message to the source and to other public officials that they will be held accountable if they do not tell the truth.

  The strongest leverage a journalist has is with our words.

• Why are you walking around this issue: As noted it the panel on interviewing, this kind of question sometimes will open the source to reveal the pressures that restricted the response.

• Calling a lying source a liar: We seen an increasing use of this term in stories dealing with Former President Donald Trump.

  The word "liar" implies a deliberate intention to tell a falsehood. That's not always the case.

  So many times, a public official can misstate something that the official would take it back if you follow up with a correction question, sometimes with an admission of ignorance.

  Whether the claim of misunderstanding the facts or the question involves something inside the head of the interviewee we cannot know as a fact.

  In other words, terming someone as a liar is reporting as a fact something you may not know with a certainty required for journalists.

  "Not true" or "false" often can be more accurate without making a value judgement.

• But there are exceptions: The slew of falsehoods from Donald Trump, particularly during his reelection campaign and and election defeat will become for journalists a classic example of when the word "lie" is appropriate.

  An example was cited by ABC's White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl on a September 2020 episode of CNN's Reliable Sources.

  He was interviewed by Brian Stelter about his question of Trump "Why did you lie to the American people."

  Karl told Stelter that for five years covering Trump he had resisted using the the "lie" word.

  But he said that changed with Bob Woodward's records in which Trump acknowledged that he knew COVID-19 was far more serious than he was telling Americans and defended his reasons for misleading the public.

  "He knew one thing, he said another thing," Karl said.

  "We knew that he was saying things that were not true. With Woodward we know he actually knows the truth and has a reason for not telling it."

• Did you realize what you just said was not true?: That question can help flesh whether the source did not know the truth, misspoke or deliberately lied.

  And it often can provide more depth and context for your story.

But government is the public's business. And there are laws providing a right of access to government documents and meetings.

But there are some public officials who will do all they can to block you from even knowing what information is held by government.

Below are some tips on how to deal with officials keeping secrets:

• Know your legal rights: Read you state's and national law(s) providing a right of access -- known as "freedom of information acts" (FOIA), open meetings and public records laws.

  Even if you're covering a state or local government, what you're seeking might be information covered by a federal access right.

  You cripple yourself if you do not know your rights to information and the restrictions under which government can keep secrets.

• Ask for the legal justification for denying access: If you are denied access to a public record or meeting, ask "under what provision of the public records law are you denying access?"

  After Missouri adopted a public records law, the Missouri chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists distributed to reporters a wallet-sized copy of the new law so we quickly could cite the specific provision when demanding access.

  Unfortunately, over the years, legislators have piled on so many exceptions that the law no longer would fit in a wallet. But knowing the law still helps.

• Write a story on the FOIA request: If a government official denies you access to a public record or open meeting, that often is a story.

  If the law provides access, cannot report an official violated the law. That's for courts and juries to decide. But you can and should cite in your story the legal requirement requiring public access.

  But you can ask under what legal provisions access was denied and why secrecy is in the public interest.

  The job and strength of journalists is not to opine, but simply to ask questions.

  And sometimes, questions can put pressure to provide access.

  Consider pulling out a microphone or pocket recorder to demonstrate the denial could become a story.

• Have an open records letter on your computer: Having such a form with citations to the specific legal requirements can simplify filing or emailing an immediate FOIA demand when denied access.

  Don't hesitate to use such a demand if needed.

  In fact, at least in Missouri, it's become almost common practice to file such a request to get information.

• But don't make a legal FOIA demand your first action: The reason for this suggestion is that a formal legal demand can complicate swift access.

  A legal demand likely gets forwarded to the agency's lawyer(s) that can delay swift access with a "we'll get back to you..." reply and can trigger imposed costs for searching or copying the data you've requested.

  Lawyers tend to consider all the reasons why a request can be denied. In a way, that's there job.

  Some agency officials, unfortunately not all, actually support the purpose of the FOIA law and are eager to comply. But if you invoke the law, the agency official may feel compelled to refer the request to the lawyers.

  Phill: I recently had an experience with this when I requested an electronic database of candidates who had filed for the 2020 election. I was told I had to submit a request to the Secretary of State's elections director.

  So, I did, but avoided any FOIA reference. I immediately got the DB.

  Of course, there are agencies that have such a reputation for secrecy that you might as well start with a FOIA demand.

• Look for alternatives for the information: Legislative committee chairs usually can get quick access because of the power they have over agencies.
  Phill: Before Missouri's FOIA law, when I was blocked access to documents, I'd go to the chair of the legislative committee dealing with the agency or the budget/appropriations committee that controlled the agency's budget.

  I confess, I'd feel uncomfortable going to partisan politicians to get information. But before FOIA laws, it was the only option. And with the growing legal complexities added to current FOIA laws, it may return as an essential option.

  Missouri once had a governor with such a commitment to openness in government that the governor's communications director was a go-to person when a reporter found an agency blocking immediate access to information. The governor's commuications director simply would pick up the phone with the reporter present and essentially deliver a gubernatorial order to release the requested records.

  Special interest groups and advocacy groups and attorneys involved in an issue for which you're seeking a document may have the information you're seeking.

  Also, if it's a legislative document, a minority-party member might be willing to provide the information.

• Don't rule out agency PIOs: Public information officers for non-political agencies can be tremendous resources.

  Of course, PIOs of politicians and agencies answerable to politically elected officials are different. But merit system employees (or civil service employees at the federal level) have a degree of independence that gives them more freedom to comply with journalistic requests for information.

  Phill: I've got to confess that a former student who became a merit system employee of a department ended up getting fired for being too cooperative with journalists.

• Develop relationships with agency directors: That often helps making them more supportive to assure access to information from the agency.
  Phill: So many times, I found that when I had a long-time coverage relationship with an agency director, that person could be a go-to source for information that lower-level agency officials were denying to me.

  I confess, I'd often have conversations or interviews with agency officials for no other reason than to maintain an open door to information within the agency.

• Think creatively: Think about other locations where the information you're seeking might be located.

  In government, there's a large array of potential open locations for secret records including court documents, audit reports, financial records, etc.

  One year, a Missouri statehouse reporter uncovered an extramarital relationship by the Senate's top leader simply by trolling through state Accounting Division records of phone call records for the legislator's government-financed phone number.

  In those documents were records of bills the phone company had sent the state that included long late night calls between the legislator and his girl friend.

  As an aside, the story led the administration to redact the complete phone numbers from accounting division records.

Finding public-policy stories that are not prompted by news releases and press briefings by public officials pushing their own agenda is one of the most important and empowering skill of a public policy reporter.

Below are some suggestions:

• Follow the money: That was the advice of "deep throat" to Woodward and Bernstein investigating the Watergate scandal.

  But with the explosive growth of public special interest money in government and campaigns, it's become a much bigger factor in public policy.

  So, check out on a regular basis campaign contributions and lobbyist expenditures. Look at financial disclosure reports of public officials that might be connected to their issues or those of their contributors.

  A complication is the growth of dark money organizations that do not disclose their donors. But there are ways to identify surprising sources.

• Look to what's happening in other states: Increasingly, national special interests are looking to multiple states for actions addressing their interests or concerns.

  So, what's happening in one state may arise in your state or on the federal level.

  Try to read as many statehouse news reports from other states. And read national news outlets for ideas that might impact the government you're covering.

  Phill: One of my students, in following that advice, came up with a major Missouri story.

  She found a national news magazine story about from another state that was experiencing a major problem with new type of highway guard-rail barrier.

  The problem was that if a driver hit the barrier head on, like from a tire failure, it could ram into the driver's windshield with lethal consequences.

  Turned out to be a great story!

  In fact, as I write this panel I just read the Missouri Transportation Department remains involved with a liability lawsuit on that issue my reporter first disclosed in Missouri years ago.

• Talk to advocacy groups without governmental influence: The growth of influence on government from well-heeled interests has reduced the influence of those without powerful lobbyists.

  The include not just about ideological groups and business organizations, but also organizations that represent citizens with serious public-policy concerns.

  Phill: One of my biggest reporting awards arose from concerns raised a parents' organization of children in state mental health institutions or had been released without adequate out-patient care.

  Often, these smaller advocacy organizations do not have well-healed lobbyists, but they may alert you to issues of major public policy impact.

• Look for unintended consequences: This is a basic focus for government staffers who research legislative and administrative actions.

  An unintended consequence is something supporters and the author did not consider. So often a proposal or action is almost a knee-jerk reaction to recent development or special-interest demand that is made without fully exploring all the consequences.

  One obvious area of unintended consequences is the potential costs to governments, businesses and to the public at large.

  But there are far more areas to examine. For example, in Missouri restrictions on COVID-related regulations caused local governments to stop contact tracing.

• Read the business pages: Business issues are such huge factors in government that it's essential for you to keep informed on what's happening in the business sector.

  Some of the most influential lobbyists trying to influence decisions are prompted by their business clients seeking legislative action that, at first glance, might not seem that major or involve business concerns.

  Business reporters have a tremendous insight into the what's going on in the business community that could become major public policy issues.

  Beyond that, statewide labor and business organizations can be key sources to give you a heads up about potentially major issues in the statehouse.

• Absence can be news: Sometimes, the absence of an issue being addressed by a governmental agency can be a major story.

  Find groups or experts that might have a reaction to the absence of action.

  What about farm drainage into rivers supplying public water from lands with livestock hormones and field pesticides? Your Agriculture Department probably is not issuing statements about that issue.

• Develop a weekly contact list: Have a list of sources to regularly call for questions like: "What's new?" or "What's going on in your agency?" or "Anything I should know about?"

  Sometimes, the response might not be a news story, but would give me a heads up about an emerging issue or problem.

  Phill: Before Missouri's Health Department restricted reporter access to just their PIO, the department's state epidemiologist was a treasure. So often from him, I learned about new infectious diseases of concern that had not yet raised alarms that triggered state news releases.

• Keep a tickler file: This is a file of questions for which there is no immediate news significant, but you've got reason to believe could become a story.

  Sometimes a tickler file item may be a source not quite ready to answer your question. Sometimes it can be an issue developing, but not yet at a level of news significance.

  Every tickler entry doesn't require a weekly check. But it's a reminder of possibilities on slow news days.

• Look outside your office at government buildings:
  Phill: I learned this lesson from a dear friend, former St. Louis Globe-Democrat Reporter Bob Boczkiewicz, when we were on a panel about statehouse journalism.

  One of the questions we were asked was where do come up with story ideas.

  Bob had a perfect answer.

  It was that he just needed to walk out the Capitol where his office was located and look around at the various government buildings.

  Thinking about the agencies at each of those buildings would remind him of potential stories to be pursued.

  For the remaining decades of my full-time reporting career, I kept following Bob's advice.

• Follow every social media outlet you can: Twitter and Facebook are major outlets for conversations and information about issues that can raise newsworthy issues for public policy coverage.

  As Donald Trump as demonstrated, it's become a major vehicle for public officials to distribute information and announcements.

  Beyond that, of course, are the numerous embarrassing social media postings that public officials make without reviewing what they wrote before posting the messages.

  Statewide and national was generated by a Facebook post of a Missouri House member with video of him decapitating a chicken and removes it's heart. It was tied to a special legislative session on abortion showing that humans have more rights over animals than over fellow humans.

  The House member, by the way, is unchallenged to be elected to the Missouri Senate in 2020.

  Phill: I learned from another reporter an advantage of follwing the tweets of every public official of importance.

  He discovered that the senator conducting a long-winded filibuster was promoting continuation of the filibuster on Twitter as a fund-raising appeal.

• Distribute your email address: Make sure your email address is given to every possible news source.

  Also, make sure you get your email address on as many news-distribution lists of government agencies and special interest groups as possible.

  You might want to consider two email accounts -- one for personal mail and one for reporting.

  Phill: Years ago, I created more than one email address so I would not be flooded by email on my personal account pushing special interests.

• Get contact-information of others: If you think a person you've interviewed might be valuable in the future, ask for a business card or contact information including email address and, more importantly, a cell phone number.

Those items that are brief are described in greater detail in other panels.

• Administrative rules: Proposed administrative rules often are overlooked by reporters, but can be as significant or more significant than actual legislation.

  Rules involve implementation of laws and sometimes can exceed statutory authority -- making the administrative rule-making process a news gold mine for news.

  Online administrative rule websites will include proposed regulations, comments and hearing schedules.

  On the national level, it's the Code of Federal Regulations. The state level may have a different term. In Missouri it's the Code of State Regulations.

• Audits: Read the full government audit reports, including appendixes and included information.

  They can provide a treasure trove of information beyond the direct subject or agency of the audit.

• Fiscal notes: These are staff descriptions of the cost to government of a proposal or bill. The actual term for these documents may differ between states, but being able to report what government staff report as the cost of a proposal can be an powerful element in your story.

  Beyond that, these descriptions often go into detail about what a proposal actually would do -- giving you another resource for identifying the real impact of an obscure proposal.

• News archives: Few issues in public policy are new. Instead, they can have a years-long history.

  Uncovering that history can help you more quickly understand an issue, since you might not need to replicate the time another reporter spent to figure out what was behind a proposal.

• Legislative journals: Develop a discipline to read the daily journals of the legislature.

  Ethics committee investigations, committee replacements and rule changes are among the items of news importance that won't necessarily be subjects of debate.

• Financial disclosures: These include campaign contribution reports, personal financial disclosures by public officials and lobbyist expenditure reports.

  Special interest money and personal financial conflicts are a major issue in public policy journalism.

• Social media accounts: The importance of social media accounts was covered in the finding-stories panel.

• Revenue reports: With the economic downturn from COVID-19, tax collection and unemployment numbers have been a major resources to determine the financial impact on citizens and businesses.

• National Conference of State Legislatures: NCSL is a great source to find out what's going on in other states and compare you state with others.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: CDC is an essential resource for getting information about infectious diseases in a state and the nation.

  Some state health departments actually get information about hospital utilization and other state health statistics from reports delivered to CDC by local hospitals.

  The importance of health data from CDC has been demonstrated as this panel was being written.

  The Trump administration's decision to transfer national COVID-19 data collection from the independent CDC to the Health and Human Services Department led to reports of missing and potentially inaccurate information available to state health agencies within days.

• Avoid getting trapped by events: Because the daily list of events makes it easier to organize your day, It's easy to get trapped into the adrenaline rush of using the schedule of events to dominate how you schedule your day.

  Events do not necessarily identify the biggest issues facing the public.

  Think about issues for which there are no events, but of significant public impact.

  Also, think about issues that are not being addressed by government and outside organizations.

  Think about follow ups to on-going stories.

  One of the unexpected benefits from the reduction in statehouse newsrooms may be that with fewer reporters, there's less pressure on covering events and letting us to move to more meaningful issues.

  Phill: Almost every morning I awake during a legislative session, I face a long list of hearings, chamber sessions, administrative board meetings and news conferences.

  Beyond was home newsroom pressure to cover events they learn about from wire service advancers and news releases announcing events in hopes of garnering coverage.

  I began to fully understand how I was getting trapped when I heard Vietnam War reporter describe the near depression he felt after leaving the adrenaline environment of a war zone for the slower-paced domestic news environment.

  I realized something similar was happening to me after the legislative session adjourned in the spring when I no longer had legislative events to schedule my efforts.

• Avoid process stories: If you're covering a governmental event, keep trying to remind yourself what the general public cares about. Back in the old days, we called government meetings "smoke-filled room" stuff.

  While we government reporters get obsessed with the process, it likely bores the public.

  There's a temptation to write a story as if you were a political science teacher describing the minutia of the process.

  Find ways you can expand the issue in the event you're covering to a broader public-policy focused issue.

  Phill: The Republican gun-violence committee hearing I covered earlier this year (2020) is a perfect example.

  It was a crack-down-on-crime bill toughening penalties, but did not address Democrat bills that would restrict firearm possession by those charged or convicted of domestic abuse.

  Democrats from the other chamber held a news conference on the issue that day and it provided a perfect opportunity to report on the deep divide between the two parties on the issue, rather than just a committee hearing.

• In other words, don't feel limited to the specific issue of the event: Look for patterns, possible trades and what's down the road.

  Essentially, think outside the box.

  After a committee hearing, ask the chair and sponsor about any changes that might be made.

  And don't forget to ask the chair when, if ever, there'll be a vote. Not having a specific date sometimes can indicate the measure is going nowhere.

• Describe the scene when appropriate: Sometimes the setting is as important or more important that what is said.

  Remember, public officials -- particularly politicians -- establish visual media events for TV coverage. But sometimes, they make mistakes.

  In Missouri as this panel is being written, we had a perfect example.

  The national COVID-19 director held a session with the Missouri governor and then held a news conference.

  Wearing a mask, she stressed the importance of all to wear masks to reduce spread of the disease.

  But standing behind her was the state's governor, Mike Parson, not wearing a mask!

• Covering Hearings: Don't treat a hearing with witnesses just like a speech.

  On both legislative committees and administrative panels, their questions often can provide insights into aspects that could determine the outcome or that need to be changed.

• Covering covering appeals-level court hearings: Read the briefs, closely.

  Briefs usually contain details of the case and lower-court decisions that may not be fully addressed in oral arguments, but can provide context for your story.

  The lawyers who wrote the briefs likely will be the ones arguing in court. So, you can get the correct spelling of the lawyers' names from the briefs.

  Finally, briefs also can alert you to a new issue when a judge raises a question that was not raised by either side in the briefs.

  But don't make the mistake of assuming tough questioning by a judge or justice reflects how she/he will vote.

  Sometimes, a tough question is asked to help the judge/justice help justify a decision on behalf of the lawyer's client.

  And, sometimes, a tough question is asked to help in drafting arguments the judge/justice will write in support of the lawyer's argument in the opinion or dissenting opinion.

  Phill: All of this being said, I was surprised how obvious was to figure out the ultimate decision from the questions asked by the justices in the first (and only) U.S. Supreme Court hearing I've covered.

• Filibusters are not as simple as you think: Do not be misled into believing a Senate filibuster simply is trying to kill a bill.

  Often, it is far more complicated.

  Sometimes a filibuster is launched to force the bill sponsor or leadership to agree to an amendment, unrelated provision or even a different bill.

  Some filibusters are launched simply to demonstrate to special interests and/or contributors that those filibustering really tried to kill the measure.

  In Missouri, the minority party often launched filibusters simply to run out the clock for how many bills the majority could get passed before the constitutional mandatory adjournment of the session.

  If those conducting a filibuster suddenly shut up, it does not necessarily mean the leadership has the votes to shut off debate ("move the previous question" or "cloture"). It could be an indication that a deal has been struck or the purpose of the filibuster achieved.

  Phill: A few years ago, I learned another reason I never had considered.

  It arose when a senator conducting a long-winded filibuster suddenly sat down. It wasn't an issue of importance to the senator, so I was puzzled as to why the filibuster and then why she ended the hours-long filibuster without explanation.

  When I asked her why the filibuster, she had a simple answer: "to get even." She was mad at the sponsor of the bill she filibustered because of a completely unrelated issue involving her colleague and she simply wanted to subject the sponsor to hours of agonizingly meaningless debate.

  But, of course, getting even might not have been the only objective. She also demonstrated she could extract a price if you got crosswise with her.

  The filibustering senator was, in her younger years, a gang member. So, I don't rule out she was demonstrating the danger of getting crosswise with her.

The governmental process can run into the late even hours or the early hours of the following morning.

Compounding the problem is that these grueling hours can be a daily, normal routine in government.

It can be exhausting and, more importantly, lead to mental fatigue after several days.

Further, the almost ritualized nature of the governmental process can compound dreariness. You need to be mentally alert because sometimes, in a seemingly ritual routine process, a major story can emerge that you could miss if exhausted or not mentally focused.

Below are some ideas for managing your time.

• Have a tentative idea of your story's focus from the start: In other words, don't go into a meeting hoping events will define the story. Maybe they will, but be prepared if they do not.

  So, think what will be the story lede.

  That can help you focus on what's important if your sitting in a tediously long session that is consumed by minutia -- which so often happens in government.

  Some journalism critics might attack this suggestion as having a preconceived notion of the story.

  They might have a point. But this advice does not lock you into what you will report. Just the opposite. It can help you better realize the significance of an issue raised that you had not expected when you were thinking about a story lede.

• How much time spent on an issue may not reflect importance: The importance of this lesson often is demonstrated by extended governmental sessions trying to craft a legally precise, political compromise that is unrelated to the heart of the matter.

  For example, don't let the number hours of a public hearing spent on a minor component of an issue distract you. If the issue raised is important, definitely report it. But don't fall into the trap of concluding time spent always is an indication of significance.

  Missouri's Senate demonstrated this point during a 12-hour filibuster a few days before this panel is being written.

  They spent tedious hours on all sorts of irrelevant matters. But the only purpose of the debate was to give time for a closed-door session of major players to find a compromise on an anti-crime bill.

  The details of that compromise were far, far more important than whatever was being debated in those agonizingly long hours or Senate babble.

• Pace yourself and set priorities for your time: If you're exhausted, you likely will not produce the best story you could. And, beyond that, you can be so drowsy that you miss major developments while covering a hearing or other event that runs for hours.

  It limited can limit your ability to analyze complicated legislative issues and think outside-the-box about ramifications.

  Phill: It took me more than a few years to realize that if I covered a legislative session into the midnight hours, only to return the next day for an early morning committee hearing, I was not at my sharpest.

  I felt an obligation to be in the Capitol when the first committee met in the early morning until the end of a chamber or committee session into the early morning hours of the next day to produce my own stories and edit those of my reporters - day after day.

  A dear colleague of mine would take a nap sitting in the legislative chamber press gallery. We both joked that we had covered the process for so many year that our subconscious brains would awaken us if something major happened.

  We were correct. More than once, I'd suddenly awaken after drifting asleep during a legislative proceeding to discover a major development had arisen.

• Don't waste time on minutia: This advice is offered with caution.

  Often in the public policy process, what seems minutia can be a key component in a measure. An amendment of just a few words can gut the effectiveness of a rule or a proposal.

  But if you spend too much mental energy and time pursuing an insignificant item, it can distract attention and focus from the real story.

  Essentially, the lesson is the old adage to "not lose sight of the forest for the trees."

• If you know you'll be facing deadline pressure, get as much information as possible before the event: The more you prepare yourself ahead of time, the more prepared you will be to write a final story or series of stories.

  Make a point to do interviews with folks from different sides before the event that you know will run late.

  Ask about the plans. That will prepare you for what's coming.

  That can help you write a draft of your story or stories as the event is proceeding -- just in case the event runs far longer than you expect.

  Phill: A demonstration of that arose when the Republican-controlled Senate took up a Republican's measure to restrict funding on use of fetal tissue for medical research.

  But I already knew what was going to happen because I'd been told that a GOP Senate caucus meeting earlier that morning had been told the Republican governor opposed the measure because it conflicted with his medical-research economic development efforts.

• Don't wait for an event to end before writing a draft: You always can revise a draft as the event proceeds.

  Beginning a draft as the event is proceeding gives you more time for adding context and thought to your story -- particularly if the event includes endless hours of meaningless babble, as government meetings often do.

  For live broadcast stories, jot down on a note pad an outline of what you want to say to make sure that with the adrenaline rush of a deadline, you don't forget a major point you wanted to include.

• Take advantage internet streaming: This has become an even more important issue when COVID-19 has led some of us to cover the legislature from home.

  But you need to be prepared.

  Make sure your home computer(s) are set up for streaming.

  For legislative chambers that have video streaming, bring home seating charts so you can identify who's speaking. And prepare yourself to recognize voices.

The process is unbelievably complex. Unlike areas like sports, few in the general public care about the complicated process.

Beyond that, you often will encounter deliberate efforts to promote words and phrases that disguise the actual impact of a proposal or rule.

• Find simple terms to describe technical language: In Missouri's legislature, preliminary approval of a bill in the original chamber is termed "perfection" because that's the stage during which floor amendments can be offered to make the bill more "perfect" prior to the final vote in the chamber, usually on a subsequent day.

  A far more meaningful phrase to the general public than "perfected" is "first-round approval" or "cleared for final approval."

  Just keep reminding yourself that you're not putting together a political science class lecture. You're writing a news story for the general public. And usually, although not always, the minuet details of the process are not importance.

  And don't even think about including the precise term in your story, as if you're a political science teacher, unless there's a reason to include the term.

• The importance of the 5 Ws and an H:

  Trying to simplify a complicated a public policy issue or process can be so mentally confusing that you can lose focus on those basic questions a story needs to address.

  It help you to mentally recite those letters to make sure you've not missed something -- particularly when my adrenalin is high because I'm facing under a tight deadline.

  Phill: I hate the confess how many times this W-H mantra has helped me avoid missing a critical component in a story.

• Add two more letters to the 5Ws and an H to your list: For public policy stories, the mental check list should include two more letters H and W -- How much and What next.

  The financial cost to a government's budget often is a major component in a story about a proposal.

  Sometimes, what next can be the story's lede, particularly if you're putting together a story for the next day.

• Be precise with legal language: The legal process has precise terms for each step in the process and each has a very different impact.

  A perfect example involves the difference between arrested, charged, indicted, found gulity and convicted.

  In Missouri, technically a conviction does not until after the judge has accepted a guilty verdict (or plea) and imposes a sentence.

  So, if the judges suspends imposition of a sentence for the defendant flowing good behavior requirements, the defendant has NOT been convicted -- at least in Missouri.

• Look for historical perspectivs: So many of the issues we public-policy journalists cover have histories going back decades that are critical to giving your audience a full understanding of the issue or action.

  Do not assume that those involved in an issue will provide those perspectives. They may not remember the history or choose to not raise historical aspects that are damaging to their positions.

  Besides, in Missouri term limits have significantly undermined historical memory of government officials and many of their staffers.

  But internet now provides a powerful tool for us to research the background of the issues we cover. Consider subscribing to a site that provides scanned images of newspapers published before the web, such as Newspapers.Com.

  Phill: Although I have covered Missouri government for more than one-half century, I do not trust my memory nor those of my sources with decades of background.

  So often I've discovered searching my own MDN archives along with the much older stories from newspapers.com that I did not remember something I reported correctly or completely forgot a major historical component to a story I was producing.

• Be careful reporting crowd size: The size of a crowd is not easy to determine, particularly if it's a large crowd outside the Capitol.

  It's best to ask police for an estimate I can attribute to them.

  If you can't get an official estimate, one trick is to use your fingers to block out a group of the crowd and then county how many of those finger-blocks are in the crowd -- adjusting for more people being in your finger block when further away from you.

  But that approach is so imprecise that it make be safer to use a phrase describing the crowd as "hundreds" or something like that.

  Another approach is to use a description of the crowd size you an report as fact such as "a crowd of protesters that overflowed the Capitol's first floor" or "a crowd that filled the Capitol grounds."

• Numbers are numbing: That's a phrase used by a Texas statehouse reporter decades ago. Good point.

  The general public has no concept of quantities that we regularly encounter in state and federal spending -- millions, billions and, with the federal government, trillions of dollars.

  To the general public, a $1 million cut might seem enormous. Not so for some of the larger agencies.

  So, try to include percentages if helpful -- such as "...the amendment would impose a five percent cut in..."

  Beyond that, for TV and print, a chart or graph can be more effective than just raw numbers.

• Consider bullets: When you're writing a newspaper or web story that requires a lot of detailed information, it may be effective to separate them into bullet pointers.

  If you look at this and other panels, you'll see that's how this site is organized. And if you think it makes the panels more readable, think what it means to your readers.

  This lesson applies to TV stories as well. A bulleted graphic can help viewers focus on the main components of a story.

• Be care of attribution verbs for documents: Bills do not "propose." Instead, they are proposals that would do something. Laws, bills and rules don't "say."
  Phill: So many of my students would write "the bill says..." that I found a powerful way to get that point across.

  I'd hold a copy of the bill next to the reporter's ear and ask "what do you hear." The reporter would respond with a puzzled look. My response was since the verb "says," which means talking, I wondered what the reporter heard from the document saying.

  Many years later, one of my former students remembered that session telling me it had a remained a lasting reminder.

• Don't report as fact what's in someone's head: The job of a journalist is to report what we know for a fact. If someone tells us something we cannot verify, we attribute the statement to the source.

  There is no way we can verify what's in a person's head. Politicians and public officials lie all the time about their motivations to keep their jobs.

  Phill: I cannot remember a single time that a public official told me an action was motivated because a supporter was a major contributor to his campaign or to his boss.

  I cannot remember a single time that a public official confessed to me on the record that he/she took an action for fear of retaliation by party, legislative leaders or a higher official.

  But, in off-the-record conversations, I often was told that explanation.

  There are a few times (very few) you can report apparent motivation. But it's only for officials you've known for many years, never have misled you and demonstrated consistency on the issue -- and usually independent of what's in the official's political or financial interests.

• Avoid "color words:" The most frequent example is use of the word "reform." It's an adjective used so often in government to coat over major disagreements.

  An a recent Missouri example is a bill just signed into law by Missouri's governor to address the high firearm homicide rates in the state's two largest cities.

  Supporters regularly termed it a "criminal justice reform" bill. That term disguises what it actually does.

  The bill increases criminal sentences, and not just for real firearm violations. Even using a fake firearm in a vehicle hijacking -- such as a child with a squirt gun -- could incur a longer sentence.

  Democrats and Black legislators did not describe the bill as "reform." The state's only Black Republican voted against the bill. Even a few weeks before signing the bill, the Republican governor voiced concern it would require building new prisons.

  An example of the lengths to which public officials will use color words arose in 2002 with language the legislature adopted for the ballot description of a gasoline and diesel fuel tax increase. Neither the word "tax" nor "increase" was used.

  Instead, the description was "Shall the additional revenues for transportation be renewed and extended?"

  State voters were not fooled by the crafty language. It overwhelmingly was rejected.

  But 15 years earlier, Missouri voters approved a motor fuel tax increase with the legislature's ballot description as "supplementing motor fuel user fees."

  One year, the legislature actually conducted a poll to find the least offensive ballot description that avoided the term "tax increase" for a tax increase. It turned out to be "revenue enhancement!"

  Phill: To stress to my students the problems with the word "reform" I'd ask if they would term a proposal to convert the governor's office to a hereditary position passed down to his eldest child as "executive branch reform."

  That question brought home that "reform" is a color word implying something favorable. When a journalist uses the word "reform" without attribution, it is reflecting a value judgment by the reporter.

• Be careful how you attribute what a source said: Essentially, any verb other than "said" can be a color word that conveys different meanings to your readers and audience.

  Attribution verbs to use with caution include "stressed," "proclaimed," "promised," etc.

  A dear colleague, former federal and statehouse reporter Wes Pippert, reminded me of a writing standard to stick with the simple word "said" for an attribution.

• Don't use "said" for a statement in a news release: If you use the word "said" for a news release statement, it implies you heard the person say it.

  Even worse, you're assuming the statement actually are the words from the person cited in the release.

  So many times a statement from a public official in a news release was written by a spokesperson.

  One governor at news conferences went so far as to actually say what was in a news release handed out at the start of the news conference, explaining he felt obligated to actually "say" what he would be attributed as saying.

  Of course, it also provided a broadcast sound-bite of a carefully crafted statement rather than a rambling answer to a question.

• Don't hesitate to identify race or other demographic characteristics: In public policy, factors like race, sex, sexual orientation and age are central to so many of the issues we cover.

  It's such a dominate factor that most folks in the public arena accept and understand such identification.

  For example, one of the leading critics of the 2020 Republican bill to impose stiffer penalties on crimes was a Black Republican who made strong arguments about the bill's impact on minorities.

  A few years back, an openly gay Missouri legislator welcomed our coverage of the lawmaker's special perspectives.

  Phill: A blind state senator, once joked with me that he had no conflict-of-interest in sponsoring a measure to allow concealed weapons since he would never qualify because he was blind.

  Great story and he told me he had no objections for me to have one of my reporters talk to him about it.

  But do be careful about demographic descriptions of someone that begins with "the first" or "one of the first" or even "one of the few."

  Before using such a description, we should ask ourselves if it truly is of news significance and relevant.

  When Catherine Hannaway was selected by her members to be the first female Missouri House speaker, it was a huge story which she fully accepted.

  But it may be irrelevant about the first female to be director of a specific department if there have been female directors of other departments over the years.

  Phill: I've had female sources complain to me that to make an issue of a person's sex when it's not of significant news importance is akin to stereotyping.

This panel offers a few suggestions on how you can make your stories about public policy more meaningful and powerful for your readers, listeners and viewers.

• Use the word "you": That pronoun probably works better for the intro for a broadcast than it does in a print story.

  But just thinking about that word, helps focus you attention on why the story you're writing impacts the general public.

• Have a vision of your typical reader, listener or viewer: Because of the complicated and intense environment in capitols, it's easy to lose sight of your action audience or readers.

  The fascination with the mechanics of politics and public policy that drove so many of us to public policy journalism is just boring to most people.

  Phill: For decades, I had an image of my typical listener in St. Louis.

  He was an auto assembly plant worker of Italian descent.

  He had just come home from work, sitting in an easy chair listening to my radio station. The TV was on with a baseball game. His wife was in the kitchen making dinner talking about what had happened in the neighborhood. In his lap was the afternoon daily newspaper opened to the sports section.

  As all of that was going on, his dog jumped onto the easy chair and began licking his socks.

  Then, my story began, competing with all of those distractions for his attention.

  Imagining that scene continues to help me focus on the need to have a powerful start to my story.

  A dear mentor for me, former CBS Correspondent Dave Dugan, would describe journalists as carnival barkers seeking to get people into the tent.

  If the start of the story is boring, you've lost. Attention will return to the sports game, the spouse's conversation or to the dog.

• Humanize your story: Try to find a regular person impacted by the issue or problem you're covering. That's an effective way to make the story relevant to the general public -- especially if the story involves a complicated public-policy issue.

  But make sure, if you're going to humanize your story, the person or persons around whom you build the story are an accurate representation of the broader range of people impacted by the issue or problem.

  What you want to avoid is using an unusual case which would misrepresent the actual broad nature of the issue or problem.

  Phill: Humanizing complicated stories is a standard in American journalism. But I've always felt it can be carried too far.

  There are some stories for which there is not an average person example. For the recent impeachment investigation of Missouri's governor, the only human side to the story was the governor and the woman who accused Eric Greitens of sexual assault. Neither of them were talking.

  Also, I fear that humanizing a story has become so common that it may not as effective in getting people "into the tent."

  I think of my own behavior listening, watching or reading the news. If the first few sentences do not clearly identify the issue, I tend not to pay attention of, if reading a newspaper, go on to the next story.

• Dealing with limited visual elements: Public policy events can be horrid for providing powerful visual elements.

  A dimly lit legislative committee room or administrative hearing room is visually boring. So too are the chambers of the state's appeals courts. Besides that, visually committee rooms all look pretty much the same.

  But there are some tricks to provide a more visually interesting component.

  For TV standups outside the government building are essential. For radio, voicing the story outside the meeting with "...reporting from outside the House/Senate chamber" provides a more dramatic setting.

  For TV, print and the web, graphics are a tremendous tool. You can use them to better explain stories involving money.

  Displaying in a TV graphic the specific language of the key element of a rule or bill can be effective.

  The danger in all of this is the degree to which politicians create "media events" for no other purpose than to provide visuals for TV stories that might not be very interesting for coverage without the visuals.

• For broadcast, conflict adds life to a story: The adrenalin of a public policy reporter goes sky high when there's an interactive debate between two legislators that has short give-and-takes about the key component of a measure.

  A sound bite that displays emotion is powerful in a broadcast story and provides great quotes.

  But be careful of letting the drama of a debate cause you to lose sight of the actual policy issue that affects the general public.

• What next?: That can be a critical focus to advance the story.

  Will the administrative panel or committee chair commit as to when the measure will get a vote? If not, why not? What are lobbyists and/or special interests doing to influence the pending decision?

  Those are just some of the questions that can be pursued to provide a second-day focus.

  There usually is not a clear "what's next" answer after an appellate court hearing. But "...as is usual, the court gave no indication when a decision would be made" has become a standard ending from my state Supreme Court stories.

  Phill: I regularly would instruct my morning newspaper reporters to think about readers who already saw and/or heard broadcast stories of a major event before they go outside to pick up the morning newspaper.

  But it's also a good lesson for broadcast reporters producing stories for the next morning. What's news in the afternoon can become boring history in the morning.

  That's why print reporters need to understand how broadcast covers the news. It can help avoid a next-day story that simply repeats what already had been broadcast hours earlier.

Emotional moments in public policy can be significant and defining moments for what we cover and help put our stories into more depth.

• One of the more powerful for me was when the Senate was in a horrid partisan gridlock:

  In 2017, Democratic Senator Karla May rose with Republican Senator Bob Dixon to jointly sing Kumbaya, the spirital song of decades earlier preaching harmony.

  It was an emotional demonstration of how dysfunctional the Missouri Senate had become and highlighted for the general public a Senate gridlock that continuies to this day.

  Another highly emotional moment for me and Missouri was the plane crash death of Gov. Mel Carnahan and the memorial service that both Pres. Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore attended.

• These moments can help define the importance of your stories:

  Every time I've covered these emotional moments, they helped me write stories about how public figures of different parties and ideologies could express powerful voices trying to bridge gaps between their differences.

  Emotion, I've found, causes public officials to open up and be more candid, truthful and honest.

• But don't be fooled that emotion can change public policy:

  That bipartisan Kumbaya song by two Missouri senators of different parties to break the partisan divide in the Senate made no difference in a partisan and ideologcal divide in Missouri's Senate that continues to this day

  So, don't fall into the trap of thinking emotional moments will be a transforming event in government or public policy. I've rarely found that to be the case.

  The one exception in my memory would be Lyndon Johnson who used John Kennedy's assignation for a successful emotional appeal to Congress to adopt Kennedy's civil rights laws that remain a bedrock in U.S. law to this days years later.

  But even if an emotional moment will not lead to a government change, it can be a factor in your stories to better describe the passion of governmental players caught in the middle.

  And, it also can provide the opportunity for the question "did you really mean it when you sang/said and how are you going to pursue it."

• Emotional moments can help you better understand those you are covering:

  So often such a question helped me distinguish between public offical driven by crazen political and self-interest motivations versus those who were driven by what they espoused.

  As for me, that Kumbaya song remains one most profound stories I've produced about the continuing and growing divide in Missouri's Senate.

  Interviewing them aftewards, they expressed heartfelt thoughts about trying to bridge a deep Senate divide that continues to this day.

  While the voices of Karla May and Bob Dixon singing that song had little impact on the Senate, their song still echoes in my head as a better vision for government.

• Look for those impacted by public policy issues you are covering

  This can be a powerful way to demonstrate the actual human impact of an issue you are covering.

  Go to legislators and lobbyists pushing for an issue to see if they have persons or organizations who can put you into contact with those would benefit or be harmed by a public policy issue you are covering.

• But do not be misled:

  I write this page with a bit of hesitation.

  Too often I see news organizations making single individual's example the heart of the story to the point that the actual public policy issue gets obscured.

  And sometimes, the individual human "victim" focus has little relationship to the actual public policy issue in play.

  So, if you're going to dramatize a public policy story around a person, make sure that person actually represents the issue of the story.

  And, just as importantly, you undertake an effort to find another person who represents the other side.

  After all, what makes covering public policy so enthralling is how often there is more than just one side to a story.

A major policy initiative approved by the legislature means little if not funded or significantly underfunded in the budget.

What follows in this panel are basic components in the budget process. The next panel will address how to cover an exceedingly complex process.

• Fiscal year: For historic reasons, the year a budget covers does not start on a calendar year.

  For most states, the budget year begins July 1. But the federal budget year begins September 1 -- supposedly because Congress could not get a budget passed by July 1.

  But even with another three months, Congress has failed to meet the Sept. 1 deadline, requiring a "continuing authorization" measure to continue spending at the previously appropriated levels after the deadline has been missed.

  Whenever you're writing a budget story, you need to make reference to the period it covers. Avoid the technical term "fiscal year" and instead use something akin to "the budget year that begins July first."

• Deficit spending: Most states prohibit deficit spending -- spending more money than the state collects in taxes.

  The only alternative to deficit spending is to pass a bond issue that borrows money for increased or special spending.

  The federal government has no deficit spending restriction -- reflected by a federal government debt of trillions of dollars and growing, particularly with the COVID-19 special appropriations.

  As for terms, deficit refers how higher the annual budget is than revenues. The term debt refers to the total multi-year debt of government.

• Revenue estimates: This a critical issues for states that cannot spend more than is collected in taxes, along with other fees and unspent money.

  For states that cannot deficit spend, the revenue estimate from the administration and/or legislature can be one of the most important decisions made in the budgetary process.

  But can be subject to political manipulation. Years ago in Missouri, the legislature routinely would over-estimate tax collections to justify bloated budgets.

  In non-election years, the governor would under-estimate revenue collections so as to build a large surplus that could be spent on building construction projects in elections years.

  These budgetary political games have pretty much been stopped in Missouri through a "consensus revenue estimate" adopted by the governor's budget director and legislative appropriations chairs before the governor's annual budget plan is presented to lawmakers.

• Authority to spend versus actual appropriation: For some states, an appropriations bill actually involves two actions.

  One is an authorization to spend up to a designated amount. The other is the actually appropriation of money that can be below the amount of authorization.

  In Congress, there were separate authorization and appropriation bills.

  Be suspicious of budget authorizations. They can be inflated beyond reason.

  Years ago in Missouri, to win approval for a gasoline tax increase, the Senate sponsor included an authorization bill that list far more projects than could b funded by the tax increase.

  Phill: The sponsor's explanation to me was that unrealistic authorization numbers was the only way he could get the votes to pass the tax increase by giving every legislator projects in his or her districts that could be used to justify voting for the tax increase.

• Earmarked taxes: Some government programs are financed by taxes or fees specifically earmarked in law or, for states, in the constitution.

  These "stand as appropriated" laws leaves the legislature without power to redirect those moneys to other programs.

  Government financial experts have attacked earmarked taxes for restricting government from adjusting spending priorities to reflect evolving needs.

• Subject to appropriation: This is a phrase that can be included in a measure to create a new program that will cost money.

  By making the program "subject to appropriation," can mean the measure means nothing.

  There are dozens of programs I've seen approved that never got funding appropriated.

  Nice opportunity for political bragging at no real cost.

• Line item veto: This is a power governors in many states enjoy, but not the U.S. president.

  The line-item veto power lets the governor reduce or completely eliminate a spending item approved by the legislature.

  It's a power designed to give the chief executive power to assure state spending stays within realistic revenue estimates without vetoing the entire budget bill.

  One wrinkle is whether a governor can line item veto language, such as spending restrictions in a budget.

  Missouri's Supreme Court has held the governor cannot remove language unless it arises from total elimination of a budget section.

• Budget withholding: Some state governors have another power. They can restrict spending authorization when revised revenue estimates indicate a funding shortage for the appropriated budget the governor has signed.

  In Missouri, a state budget director revised that term to "restrictions" rather than "withholding" since if the money was not going to be available, it wasn't being withheld -- instead, appropriation authority was being restricted.

  After arguing with budget directors for years, I've come to accept their wording as more accurate.

  On the federal level, the term has been called "impoundment."

  The budget restriction power is a tool for governor to assure the state does no deficit spend when revenue collections fall below expectations.

• Capital improvement and reappropriation budgets: A capital improvement budget is an appropriation for new building construction or building repair that might take more than one year to complete.

  What follows is limited to Missouri, because that's my sole experience and knowledge about this type of budget.

  In Missouri, a capital improvement appropriation usually will be the total expenditure expected, even if it takes more than one fiscal year to complete the project.

  In a way, including the full multi-year appropriation into the budget line is a demonstration of administration and legislative commitment to assure funding for however long it takes to complete the project.

  Realize that for a large building construction project, the first year might be restricted to architectural planning that will be a fraction of the total cost.

  A reappropriation is a reappropriation in a subsequent fiscal year of the remaining unspent money left to complete the project.

  Because the capital improvement budget proposed for a fiscal year includes large amounts that will not be spent in that fiscal year, the numbers can be misleading.

  Phill: I tend to limit my budget summary stories for what the legislature passed for the next fiscal year to the "operating" budget and refer separately to capital improvement appropriations only if huge or otherwise of news significance.

• Supplemental or emergency appropriations: These are appropriations presented to the legislature for the remaining months of the current fiscal year.

  Some are for funding for true unexplained emergencies that government is facing or unexpected federal revenue, such as the huge amount of COVID-19 federal relief Missouri expected to get in the closing months of the 2020 fiscal year.

  But, the supplemental budget can also be used as a trick make the regular budget bills passed the prior year to look unrealistically smaller.

  For many years, Missouri's legislature deliberately passed a budget for Medicaid health care coverage that many lawmakers knew was substantially lower than expected for one of Missouri government's largest spending items.

  Conservative legislators were able to approve a smaller "welfare" budget because they knew they could come back to the following year to pass a "supplemental" budget for Medicaid that would get less news attention.

• Its a game of winners and losers: Don't fall into the trap of writing a sob-story about how a particular program did not get all the money advocates wanted.

  For states that cannot deficit spend, a cut in one program often is made to provide higher funding for another program.

  It's part of the lesson about there always being more than one side in a story.

  When it comes to a budget item, there can be a pile of other sources that gain funding from a cut in a particular source.

• Funding sources: Pay attention to the funding sources.

  This "From:" funding line is critical.

  It's the bottom line as to where the money appropriated actually comes. And, budget makers can play with that figure to make an appropriation appear larger than it will be.

  One line will be state tax revenue (General Revenue) that is assured, unless the governor imposes a line-item veto or funding restriction. This item usually is both an authorization as well as an appropriation (see the previous panel for an explanation).

  But other "From:" sources include federal funds, agency fees or outside income over which the state or local government legislature does not have power to obtain.

  Instead, these funding sources amount to not much more than telling an agency "if you can get it, we authorize you to spend it."

  It's one of the reasons that budget stories should focus on what the legislature or local governing board actually appropriates in funds it controls rather than authorizations.

  An example arose with a Missouri state hospital years ago. Facing revenue shortages, the governor proposed a budget that deeply cut appropriations of state tax dollars to the hospital, but grossly over-estimated how much the hospital could collect in fees and health insurance claims -- far higher than the hospital said was realistic.

  If you looked at the total budget, it looked like a hefty increase for the hospital. But if you looked at the appropriation of state funds, it was a cut.

  At one time, the Missouri legislature would appropriate "$1E" for federal funds to agencies. Although not defined by state law, is was intended to mean that an agency could spend as much federal funds as the agency can get.

  The $1E has since been abandoned by Missouri's legislature.

• Apples to apples, not apples to oranges: This issue arises when you compare a budget recommendation for the next year with the current budget year.

  Realize that what had been appropriated by the legislature in the prior year can be reduced by the chief executive with line-item vetoes and spending restrictions.

  Occasionally in Missouri, a state administration attempting to make a governor's budget recommendation appear to be a higher percentage increase by citing as the current year's budget for an agency what the governor allowed the agency to spend -- not what the legislature appropriated.

  Comparing an appropriation recommendation to the lower spending authorization the governor is misleading.

  It's comparing apples to oranges because the governor always can reduce or restrict even if the legislature approves his entire recommendation. And I've never known a governor to disclose when he presents a budget what he expects to line-item veto when he signs the bill or restrict during the course of the fiscal year.

• Another apples to oranges issue: Another financial comparison issue arises with monthly revenue figures for a state. During times of economic downturn, these figure can be a source for major stories.

  But don't make the mistake of comparing tax collections for the last month to the prior year's month.

  The problem is that many taxes are not filed with government nor calculated by the tax-collection agency on weekends.

  There can be one more or less weekend between the same months from different years.

  In an average month, that's nearly a seven percent different in business days.

  A far better comparison is the current year to date with the prior year to date, but only after the first one or two months of the fiscal year.

• Legislating in an appropriations bill: Do not consider the budget to just be a matter of allocating dollars.

  Often, the budget also can be a vehicle for restricting agency activities.

  In Missouri, the Republican-controlled legislature has used the budget to prohibit or restrict use of state funds for abortion-related health services and college tuition breaks for students from other countries.

• Budget negotiation grid locks: So often, disagreements between legislative chambers can seem to be insurmountable grid locks.

  But for all the chest thumping, it's rare these disagreements are real obstacles.

  As one long-time appropriations committee chair told me, when you're dealing with a number there's always a simple solution -- split the difference.

  Further, some major cuts approved by a chamber are made just to put leverage on the other chamber by cutting a pet project of the other chamber's legislative or budget leader.

  Essentially, it's a negotiating ploy that "we'll agree to restoring the cut we made in your leader's pet project if you'll restore the cut you made for a project our chamber wants."

  Phill: I always considered budget negotiations to be akin to a poker game in which part of the game includes bluffing about what cards you actually hold.

  A demonstration of this view that you can always split the difference perspective arose from the only time I've seen Missouri's legislature fail to pass a budget before the constitutional deadline, forcing a special session.

  It involved language prohibiting family funds from going to Planned Parenthood. It was not a difference in numbers, so there was no way to split the difference.

• Try to cover as many budget hearings as you can: Budget hearings can give you an insight into issues involving an agency that go far beyond just budget items.

  Budget/appropriations committees tend to be composed of the more senior legislators with extensive knowledge about the internal issues of agencies.

  Because of their budget powers, these lawmakers get tips from advocacy groups and disgruntled agency employees.

  Phill: I can remember often leaving a day's budget hearing on an agency with my notebook jammed with notes about possible non-budget stories that emerged.

• Inflation adjustments: This can be an important element to an agency budget recommendation when the inflation rate is high or an increase in agency's budget will fall below expected inflation.

  But usually, trying to adjust figures for inflation just complicates a story.

Numbers and statistics are major components for many public policy stories.

And, unfortunately, politicians and agencies will hand out statistics that, to put it mildly, are not quite meaningful, if not flat misleading.

At the time this panel is being written, the U.S. is being inundated with misleading and down-right false information about COVID-19.

• Ask from where the data came: At times, a government agency or candidate will cite information the comes from an unreliable source. And sometimes, there's no source at all.

  If the original source is not disclosed, there's probably a reason for the secrecy. So there could be a good story to dig out the original source.

• Demand to see the original report of the data: That will assure what is being claimed actually is what was reported.

  It also gives you the ability to explore details such as how the data was collected, its age and other information that might put the reported number in a different light.

• Check the background of the source of the data: For example, if a business association presents a study showing a business tax break would create new jobs, that association of businesses have an obvious interest in what the study reports.

  So the questions that should be asked or pursued is how much the association paid for the study, what other clients the study's author has, whether there's a pattern of pro-business studies, etc.

  This recommendation is not limited to private interests. It includes government itself, as demonstrated by COVID-19.

  For decades, the independent federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been a key resource for reporters on health information.

  But the Trump administration switched COVID-19 data processing from CDC to a department, Health and Human Services, whose secretary serves at the pleasure of the president.

  That's going to raise legitimate questions if there suddenly are unexpected declines in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization or death rates.

• When comparing two data numbers, consider all that can affect those numbers: This is a major component in logic to consider whether a particular variable is independent of other factors or dependent (can be affected) by other factors.

  Almost all the numbers we cover as reporters are not independent.

  But what's important is to understand what makes a number dependent and whether that makes a comparison misleading.

  Further, thinking about the factors that could affect a figure can lead you to more thoughtful stories.

  COVID-19 test results is a perfect example. Factors that can affect positive test result include age, race and living conditions.

• So, make sure you're comparing apples to apples: This recommendation is repeated in the budget panel.

  Misleading numerical comparisons has been a major problem with COVID-19 figures.

  The COVID-19 positivity rate is a prefect example. That term refers to the percentage of people tested for whom there was a positive test result.

  Comparing that figure with an earlier positivity figure is a bit misleading.

  The reason is that in the early months of COVID-19, ability to get a test was so limited that only those with significant symptoms were being tested. So the positivity would be expected to be high.

  Later, as testing became more accessible, there has been a major push to test as many possible including those with absolutely no symptoms of infection. So, of course, there should be a drop in the percentage of those who test positive.

  And if the positivity rate is higher after testing becomes more accessible, it's a major story.

• Pay attention the date range for comparisons: Essentially, ask yourself if there is anything between the two dates that could affect the data.

  In logic, that's making sure that what you are comparing is independent of date.

  A couple of examples to demonstrate the importance of this issue. Daily COVID-19 daily figures are a perfect example. Comparing infection rates of yesterday with today can be misleading.

  For example, in Missouri test results often were not delivered over the weekend, causing a spike in positive tests reported on Monday or Tuesday.

  Missouri's Health Department director, and other health experts, have advised that comparisons on infection rates should be between at least one week rather than single days.

  Another example, explained in the budget coverage panel, involves tax collection data. In that case, comparing even one month to another month can be misleading.

  The reason is that some tax collections are not sent to the state on weekends. And, even if sent, may not be processed and reported by tax collection agencies on weekends when many government agencies are closed.

• Be careful writing about polls: At one time, there were some firm standards about information that should be included in any story about the results of a public opinion poll.

  Mandatory information included the margin of error, how the poll was conducted, the percentage who did not answer and the specific question that was asked.

  Unfortunately, those standards are not as rigorously followed as in the past. And that's made it easier to trick reporters with unreliable polls.

  Key issues for a voter-opinion poll include whether it was limited to registered voters or those who said they likely would vote.

  Another issue is whether the results were adjusted to correct for under-represented groups such as minorities, elderly, gender, etc. It's a standard practice in polling data.

  Phill: Because of my political science background, I generally accept adjustments for under or over represented groups. But I also realize that it can be a method to skew polling results.

Instead, this panel will identify some of the more significant or unique ethical issues faced by those of us who cover public policy.

• Be cautious of actions that can reflect bias: There is a growing campaign to characterize reporters as biased folks pursuing ideological or political agenda.

  It makes it even more important that we demonstrate in every way we can that we don't have an axe to grind.

  Initiative and referendum signatures are public, so avoid signing them.

  Don't wear anything that could reflect a bias. Even sports apparel.

  Realize, your favorite major professional sports team has a huge interest in issues you may cover including tax breaks, government-funded stadium expansions and much more.

  Phill: Once, not too many years ago, the Senate's sergeant of arms approached me in the chamber to convey a legislator's request for removal of a reporter wearing a shirt promoting the college football team from another state.

  I refused to comply, telling the sergeant of arms that since there was no Senate rule on the issue, it was up to him to act. He didn't, but somehow the reporter got the message and stopped wearing the display so offensive to Missouri senators.

• Gifts, meals and beverages: This is a bigger issue for we public-policy reporter because of the degree lobbyists and special interests use things of financial value in trying to influence governmental action.

  Offering a drink to a visitor is so common that it's almost an automatic greeting in a legislator's office.

  Don't fall into the trap of accepting this stuff. The simplest answer is to say no, or for sure, don't accept an alcoholic beverage.

  A tricky question involves snacks or other food items that available to everyone, including the public.

  In Missouri, one dairy association annually has table in the Capitol rotunda serving ice cream to anyone who stops by. And both the House and Senate have coffee dispensers accessible to anyone in the building.

  Phill: I confess, I regularly grab coffee from those dispensers. Some might criticize my decision, but it's free and accessible to anyone including Capitol visitors, just like Capitol water fountains.

• Realize your behavior reflects collectively on all of us: When you accept a drink, you leave the impression that's standard for all reporters.

  When you partake of the benefits of special interests in such a public setting, a lot of folks you cover or who work for whom you cover will see you -- leaving an impression.

  Phill: I can remember lobbyists providing free sports game tickets and even delivering booze to newsrooms in Missouri's Capitol.

  It became a serious issue when a newspaper reported in a story about the weekly booze deliveries to legislative offices that newsrooms offices also were on the receiving end. Whether the newsroom accepted them or not, the deliveries were left outside the door.

  It was a sensitive issue. One statehouse reporting colleague launched a campaign decades ago to get me fired because I was trying to organize a collective request from the statehouse press corps to stop leaving booze at our offices.

  As a footnote, lobbyists no longer drop off booze at press corps offices.

• Off-the-record conversations: This is covered in another panel, but there is an ethical issue unique to capitols.

  Access to many legislators, staffers, lobbyists and officials is so easy and informal that the person with whom you are talking may not be aware that it's an on-the-record conversation.

  And for your more frequent sources, particularly for a brief hallway conversation, they may think it's a confidential conversation.

  Unless it's obvious it's on-the record, such has having a microphone or digital recorder in your hand, I think the best practice to state up front the conditions.

  And make sure your source knows the explicit provisions. In DC, there were precise meanings for terms like "deep background," "background," "not for attribution" and "off the record."

  Phill: At the state level, particularly newer officials likely will not fully understand these terms. I've always considered that if a conversation is not completely open, that the source understands the conditions.

  That also means that if I just want information from a staffer or lobbyist, but nothing I'll attribute, I'll start the conversation saying something like "what I'm going to be asked will not be attributed to you." And if is on deeper background, I sometimes will "this is from my own understanding so I get the story correct."

• Revealing a source after death:
  Phill: I've struggled with this question for some time.

  At first, I concluded a confidentiality agreement ended at death since the source had nothing to lose by identification. So I'd identify them in talks about government coverage with my journalism students.

  But I began wondering if a source would be upset if the source knew that after his/her reputation would be soiled with colleagues who learned the source had betrayed their secrets.

  I did have one Senate leader who volunteered I was free to reveal anything he had said to me after he left office. Former Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard was deeply motivated about preserving Senate traditions and history.

  Besides, it was not a particularly major offer. He knew that many in the Senate, including his strongest critics, were aware he was a regular source for me.

  As a footnote, my panel on mentors reveals now-deceased two major confidential sources of mine.

  But both had been educators and I knew them well enough that I have no doubt they would be delighted that they were being used as a teaching tool.

• Ambush interviews: These are attempts to get an interview by surprising a public official in an area where the official is accessible, such as a sidewalk or hallway.

  It's usually a tactic used by TV to catch the official in a more interesting visual backdrop than office. And, at times, it's just stage craft to make the reporter appear more aggressive than having a scheduled interview in the official's office.

  One time, a TV reporter rushed onto the Missouri House floor against House rules for no other purpose that getting video of him being stopped from interviewing a local legislator.

  These kind of ambushes are unethical if the official regularly makes himself/herself available for reporter interviews.

  A St. Louis TV crew came under intense criticism from statehouse reporters when the crew shot video of the reporter rushing to catch the governor at an airport as he was boarding the governor's plane.

  There was absolutely no need for the ambush. The governor, Mel Carnahan, was the most accessible I've covered. He had frequent news conferences and always would honor an interview request as soon as possible.

  But here are times when an ambush may be the only way to get access to an official.

  Phill: For Gov. Joe Teasdale, I'd have my TV reporters set up the camera on the sidewalk outside the Capitol to catch the governor making his near daily walk to a church across the street.

  Teasdale rarely held news conferences and rarely granted interview requests.

  Surprisingly, however, he did not object to our ambushes and, instead, willingly agreed to an interview for as long as we needed.

• Photographing private citizens: Obviously, any expectation to privacy is lost when a person engages in a newsworthy event, such as a demonstration on government property or testifying at a committee hearing.

  But children are quite different issue. Without parental consent, be careful about publishing or broadcasting identifiable information of children.

  But, recent live-streaming on the web of legislative hearings has made largely irrelevant any concerns about identifying a committee witness providing deeply personal stories.

• But don't automatically hide descriptive identification of private persons:
  Phill:

  I learned this lesson from a multi-week investigative series on major problems in the state's mental health hospitals.

  One of my sources was a person confined to a state hospital for schizophrenia.

  He was a tremendous resource in helping me understand the ailment, its effects and the conditions he was experiencing in a state facility.

  To protect his privacy, I did not use his name.

  After he heard my series, he contacted me to complain he never asked not to be identified. He fully understood I was protecting his privacy, but he told me it had an unintended consequence of contributing to a sense by some that mental illness is something of shame.

  He argued that his condition, in no way, limited his ability to make an informed consent for identification. I think he was correct.

  The lesson I learned from him decades ago became a lesson at trying to be too "politically correct."

  I leave his name out of this panel only because I do not remember it and no longer have a record of his name.

• Hidden microphones: Be careful using this tactic. It can be a crime.
  Phill: I learned that from a CBS attorney to a question about using a hidden microphone to record the sales pitch of a funeral home staffer pushing costly services or products.

  The attorney warned it could be a federal crime if I recorded where the person had a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a private office.

  That was decades ago and the federal law may have been changed. Further, states can have their own differing laws about secret recording.

• What about telephone conversations: A phone conversation can be recorded if at least one person on the call is aware of the recording.

  But there's a huge caveat for broadcasting a phone recording. Under FCC rules, you must advise the person you are recording. If a recording is broadcast on a licensed station without notice provided before the recording started, it can lead to a large FCC fine against your station.

If you truly are serious about becoming a public policy journalist, be sure to concentrate part of your courses on the complex array of subjects you will encounter.

Below are the public policy courses Phill pursued in his graduate and undergraduate years:

• Political science: Political science courses can teach about a number of topics that are key in covering public policy including political behavior, basics of the governmental process and how to better understand political polls.
  Phill: From Political Science Prof. Dave Leuthold, I gained a much better understanding of the history of our governmental process and the differences, as well as similarities, between states and the U.S. government.

  Leuthold regularly attended political gatherings, so had first-hand knowledge about the realities of the political process and voter behavior.

  From my political science courses, I even learned about the parliamentary system that helped me better put into context the legislative system we have in the U.S. And, it later provided me with a solid foundation for journalism training in emerging and re-emerging democracies.

  Frankly, I don't think I would have been qualified to cover Congress for NPR without these political science courses.

  From my political science course research project for Leuthold, I statistically proved from national polling data how opinion on a single domestic issue correlated with opinions on much larger number of issues -- but domestic and, to my surprise, international issues.

  That research project along with another course I'll cite below, made me more comfortable identifying a politician as "liberal" or "conservative." I knew it was a statistically valid term for a large percentage of respondents to national polls going back for decades.

  Realize, that was decades ago when our country was so less ideologically divided. But my research project found a growing ideological factor among potential voters.

• Government budgeting: From a course on government budgeting, you can develop the skills to better understand massive and complicated government budgets.

  If you can understand the budget and complicated government accounting systems, you are empowered to delve into the deeper secrets of government.

  A government budgeting course also will teach you how about information you can gain from government accounting systems.

  The value of accounting documents for journalists was demonstrated in Missouri when a reporter discovered a Senate leader was spending large amounts of money with his government-financed phone number to call a girl friend.

  Phill: I was lucky that my government budgeting teacher, Public Administration Prof. Stan Botner, had real-life practical knowledge about the realities and politics of the budgeting process.

  He had been the administrative assistant to a U.S. Senator and then handled the budget for the U.S. Agriculture Department.

  As some former Missouri budget directors learned, from what I learned from Botner, I quickly could spot errors in their documents or evasions.

  My research project for his course was to evaluate how well the state administration was complying with national standards for "program budgeting" which had come into vogue.

  It was easy to identify how the state failed, but digging through the budgetary, with Botner's advice, gave me a solid background about the budget documents available.

• Constitutional history: A course on the U.S. Consitution can provide two advantages in covering public poliicy.

  First, so much of what we cover involves constiutional restrictions and requirements on government that have evolved from two centuries of court decisions.

  Second, by digging through those Supreme Court decisions and argument, you'll be better prepared to cover appellate level court proceedings.

  Phill: My two courses on constitutional history, one pre-Civil War and one post-Civil War are among the most valuable courses I took outside of journalism.

  I took the courses on whim, but what I learned empowered my reporting in more ways than I expected.

  The courses were taught by a history professor, Bill Wiecek. But because he also was a lawyer who required his students dig into the details of Supreme Court decisions, I became empowered to cover the complicated legal and constitutional issues that govern so much of what I've covered in government.

  It was from Wiecek's second course on post-Civil War constitutional history that I gained a much deeper understanding about the overriding importance of the 14th Amendment to American public policy.

  More than once, I found myself correcting lawyers in the legislature when they misinterpreted constitutional law -- including one of my best sources who later became an appellate judge. I began to realize that much of law school is focused on procedural matters rather than a deep understanding of the constitutional foundations that govern government.

• Economics: So much of what we cover in public policy involve economic issues and business interests.
  Phill: One of the key lessons I learned from my business course was research that questioned whether tax breaks to attract business really made any difference.

  One study concluded that factors like prevailing wage rates, utility costs and transportation costs had a larger financial impact in business relocation than tax cuts designed to attract the relocation of business plants.

  Even the quality of public schools was a factor because if affected the ability to recruit executives.

  That research is decades old, but it's given me more confidence on how to question whether a tax break being pushed by politicians for "economic growth" actually has solid foundation.

  It actually has become a major issue in Missouri as to whether the state is gaining or losing from tax credits and tax breaks.

• Statistics: Public policy coverage is dominated by numbers including budgets, health statistics, tax revenues, polling, economic figures and much more.

  A course in statistics can give you more power to understand what those numbers mean and, more importantly, realize when numbers presented to you are misleading.

• Logic: Learning the discipline of logic can help you determine whether a generalized sentenced in your story is justified by the facts.

  Knowing logic standard of "necessary, but not sufficient" can help you accurately condense into a more general lede that will help the reader, listener or viewer understand what you're reporting.

• Psychology:
  Phill: I recommend this with a bit of reluctance.

  I initially found my political psychology course exploring the psychological reasons for political behavior and beliefs to be a bit off the wall. And as a working reporter, I refused to include in the required term paper my own political beliefs and how they were formed (a refusal that knocked down my grade for the course by one letter).

  But from the course, I gained a better understanding about potential foundations of ideology, voter behavior and politician values.

  It continues to help me better frame questions of public officials that are more likely to reveal core values.

• Sociology: This also might seem a bit strange, but there are some aspects from sociology that can make you a better public policy journalist.

  Sociology includes group behavior. And group behavior involves a lot of what we cover including legislative groups, political parties and activist organizations. In a way, they're like tribes!

  Phill: I learned another benefit from sociology from a close academic partner, Bob Gassaway. After a distinguished journalism career including covering the Vietnam War for The Associated Press, Gassaway returned to school to get a doctorate in sociology.

  For an article we co-authored on statehouse reporting, Gassaway included a concept he learned from sociology about the advantages groups with a physical location enjoy.

  Until that article, I had not fully appreciated how citizen advocates are less empowered because they don't have an office in the state Capital nor a regular physical presence in the Capitol.

• Comparative religions:: In our current era when religious strife is such a key issue for journalists, this area of study has become more important.

  You can better understand from where a public official might be coming if understand the official's religious beliefs.

  Phill: A course on eastern religions and intensive reading, helped me better understand issues for immigrant Muslims fleeing persecution relocating in St. Louis.

  It also provided a profound foundation for my international journalism efforts in India and Mulsim Uzbekistan

  I still vividly remember a conversation I had with a group of young journalists in India. All Hindus, I was shocked they did not know even the basics of Muslim faith -- the dominate faith of bordering Pakistan and the second largest religion in their own country.

  Our evening discussion became a bit a seminar as I explained to them some of the basics of the Muslim religion they did not realize.

  I suspect that despite my Buddhist philosophy background, my understanding of differing religions may have contributed to a relationship for several years teaching students from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and the Spanish University of Navarra, founded by the founder of Opus Dei.

• Internships: A school internships involving policy can give you an inside perspective about how the process really works.

  But be careful about potential conflicts of interest that might restrict future reporting assignments. You likely will not be allowed to cover the person or agency for which you interned and maybe not the issues in which you were involved -- at least initially.

  Phill: Some of the best students in my statehouse reporting program had been legislative or government agency interns. So, they began reporting in my newsroom with a deep understanding of some of the issues they would be covering, as well as an insight into how the process works.

• School government reporting opportunities: Take advantage of school-run programs that involve first-hand exposure to the governmental process in your school's state Capital or in Washington.
  Phill: I modeled the my school's state government reporting program after the Washington Reporting Program where I spent my final graduate semester.

  The director, Ed Lambeth, had been a Washington correspondent for Gannett News Service and subsequently founded the school's Washington Reporting Program.

  Because of Lambeth's experience covering Congress, i learned volumes about public policy journalism.

  But the most important influence from him on me was a far better understanding of the special ethical issues confronting those of us covering public policy.

• For broadcast students, take some print courses: These courses provide a couple of advantages.

  First, courses like copy editing will teach you discipline in language that can help you avoid embarrasing gramatical mistakes. Besides, language precision is particularly important in public policy journalism.

  Second, you'll get a better understanding about the skills required to dig out information of complicated stories.

  Phill: When I was an undergraduate in broadcast, my journalism school required broadcast students to take courses on newspaper reporting and copy editing.

  The lessons about language precision that I learned from my copy editing teacher, Dale Spencer, helped me make potentially career damaging verbal mistakes in live reports.

  Decades after that course, I still consider it one of the most valuable courses I took in journalism school.

• Likewise, print students should consider a broadcast course: There are two advantages for a print student to get some broadcast training.

  First, if you know how a broadcast journalist will report something you also are covering, you will be more prepared to produce for your morning newspaper something that does not just duplicate what your readers already saw or hear from broadcast news reports.

  Second, broadcast journalists place far greater emphasis on grabbing the attention of our listeners and viewers at the very start of our stories.

  Phill: Yes, I realize we broadcast reporters are criticized for being too sensationalistic.

  But I think because we regularly face live or near-live reporting pressures, we know how to quickly frame and focus a story without having the luxury of hours of time for contemplation.

  Regularly my print students were staggered how I could just spout off the top of my head a lede when a student was having trouble organizing a story.

• Also seek experience outside your medium of interest: Unlike other fields of journalism, there is more movement between media forms for those of us who cover public policy.

  One reason probably is because the subject matter is so complex that its easier to switch from broadcast to print or in the other direction.

  The late Bob Watson is a perfect example. He covered Missouri government for the local TV station, but then transitioned to the statehouse correspondent for the local newspaper.

  Another colleague, Terry Ganey, had been a local radio reporter before he became an Associated Press correspondent covering the Missouri Statehouse and then bureau chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Missouri statehouse bureau.

  Phill: A former student of mine in 2011 is a perfect example.

  She was a dedicated newspaper-focused student. But less than a decade later, Audrey Moon became a TV news director.

  I suspect Audrey was more prepared to move from print into broadcast by her experience working with TV and radio reporters in my converged MDN newsroom.

  I'm a perfect example of the advantages in this recommendation. Although initially a broadcast reporter, I helped finance my graduate program by stringing for both St. Louis major daily newspapers (the Globe-Democrat no longer exists).

  That print experience, along with print courses undergraduate broadcast students once were required to take, were among my qualifications to expand my faculty role to supervising print students in the State Government Reporting Program and to write a column on statehouse issues for Missouri newspapers that I continue to this day.

• Think about a future outside of journalism: It should be no surprise to you that our profession is shrinking. Both print and broadcast are losing advertising revenue leading to fewer jobs, furloughs and salary reductions.

  While in school, you may have a deep and sincere commitment to journalism, but it may not be possible or economically feasible for a lifetime career.

  Phill: Over the decades, a large number of my former students have moved to non-journalism fields including law, public relations, political consulting and even government itself.

  Some simply lost their jobs. Some got frustrated by the decline in newsroom staffing. And for some, it was necessary to meet growing family financial obligations.

Do not make the mistake of treating sources as just a resource for a particular story you are pursuing.

From a source you can learn such more including the history and background of issues far beyond the immediate story.

And from your interest in learning more about a source's area of expertise or responsibility, you may also develop a far more valuable contact who will alert you to emerging issues in her/his area of responsibility and feel more confident to go off the record to provide a deeper understanding of an issue you're covering.

So, don't limit your contact with a major, cooperative source only to formal interviews or just when pursuing a specific story.