11 January 2010

Colorado's General Assembly Coming Soon

Colorado's legislature, the Colorado General Assembly, will convene for its opening day on Wednesday for its 120 day annual session. The first three months are devoted primarily to substantive legislation, while the last month deals primarily with the state budget.

This year, the Denver Post and Associated Press will be the only big media outlets covering it. Ironically, a couple of years ago, the credentialed state house press felt a need to limit its ranks to exclude bloggers. Yet, now, economics have dramatically purged the ranks of traditional media journalists, but the bloggers are still here.

Some of the loss of state house coverage may be transparency driven, however. Colorado has live internet feeds of all floor proceedings and committee hearings. So, the need to be physically in the state house to cover its proceedings is not nearly as great as in many states. This facilitates selective coverage by non-dedicated reporters and part-time bloggers of the state legislative process.

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