20061206 Go Ask Stuckey

Go Ask Stuckey

December 6, 2006

My latest Tentacle column has been posted: “Go Ask Stuckey”

This column was a sheer joy to write as I was able to emphasize the positive and showcase some of the exceptional writers with whom I have had the privilege to briefly work in the Maryland Statehouse news pool.

Folks like Tom Dennison, Doug Tallman, Justin Palk, S.A. Miller, Clifford Cumber; to name a few quickly. (Mr. Dennison is leaving for the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative – and will be very much missed…)

My only regret is that as the deadline for the column loomed, I was not able to get all the quotes I wanted…

When I cover the Maryland General Assembly Opera; in spite of the fact that I so enjoy media criticism, what goes on with my colleagues in the downstairs press room, stays in the press room. I try to give the colleagues, with whom I work, a wide berth and some comfort to not have some snitch looking over their shoulders and swiping at their antics in the pressroom and/or coverage.

Besides the opera that is what we know as that august Maryland legislative body, the worst in the nation, gives me plenty to write about - - and the folks in the press room in the Annapolis Statehouse are really neat, extraordinarily talented - - and quite a hoot.

But actually, I don’t believe in frivolous gotcha journalism as it, more often than not, does not give the readers a true picture of the individual involved. I mean, if a person who is in a public position to affect the development or implementation of public policy messes-up over and over again, well, then that behavior becomes relevant.

Otherwise folks should be respected as individuals who have dared to leave a comfortable cocoon and take-on a community leadership role. It is only appropriate to give them some benefit of doubt, a chance to be human – be real and have some fun…:

In a conversation with Carroll County Commissioner Dean L. Minnich, the other day, we touched upon the fact that we have both seen it from both sides and we agreed that it is important in journalism to let people be people.

We just both wished that all the local and state newspapers saw it that way.

One newspaper in particular is insufferable in their approach and both Commissioner Minnich and I have both been on the receiving-end…

Anyway, what Washington Post Mathew Mosk recounted as Governor Marvin Mandel’s take is worth repeating…

“Former governor Marvin Mandel, who became House speaker just after Stuckey arrived, recalled fondly the days when reporters and lawmakers shared a suite at the Maryland Inn, where they would unwind after a day's work. ‘We were able to talk freely with reporters,’ Mandel recalled, ‘say what was on our minds without having to worry about how it was going to look in the next morning's paper.’”

My column began:

The Associated Press' Tom Stuckey, one of the venerable and distinguished members of the Maryland Statehouse press newsroom has retiring.

Mr. Stuckey, 67, the Associated Press' longest-serving State House bureau chief, started working for the AP in 1962 and began the Maryland government beat the next year, when Gov. J. Millard Tawes resided in the governor's mansion. William S. James was Senate president and Marvin Mandel was House speaker.

In the ensuing four decades, he became a legend, and legions have admired his work.

Read the rest of the column here.