Walter Mears spent his fair share of time in political reporting.
The retired Pulitzer Prize winner covered nearly 40 years of presidential campaigns for the Associated Press, and after four decades of reporting, he shared his anecdotes from the inside.
Mears spoke to about 30 people in the Communication Arts and Sciences Building on Wednesday as part of the Siebert Lecture series.
In the first election since his retirement, Mears said sitting on the sidelines this year wasn't easy.
"I missed it a lot, but there comes a time when another generation needs to take over," he said.
The retired journalist spent the first 20 minutes of his speech criticizing President Bush, and was almost relieved in saying that his reporter's obligation to be objective was relinquished after retirement.
Mears said even though politicians are more accessible now than any other time, much of the coverage is superficial and insubstantial.
"While images and sound bites from political candidates are more accessible, they're packaged and sold as supermarket products," he said.
In his early days, when a journalist's questions weren't answered by politicians, "it would get nasty," he said.
"Right now, there's almost none of that and it's a loss to the political readers," Mears said.
Mears spent more than 45 years with the Associated Press covering every presidential election from 1964 to 2001.
He was a special correspondent, chief political writer and chief of the Senate writing staff while at the AP Washington bureau.
He also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 for his national coverage of Jimmy Carter's 1976 election and was named an AP vice president in 1978.
But in recent elections the candidates pick and choose who they talk to, Mears said.
"Interviews are only given to the friendly cable television types," he said.
During the lecture Mears also told a story from former President Kennedy's campaign when the candidate was hit in the face with a glass of whiskey in a parade.
Kennedy took the glass, wiped off his face, and handed it back to the woman - something people couldn't fathom these days, he said.
Jane Briggs-Bunting, director of the School of Journalism and a member of The State News Board of Directors, said she heard Mears speak at an AP conference and invited him to MSU.
"This was a great opportunity to hear the historical perspective of journalism," she said. "And he was funny as heck."
Journalism sophomore Brittany Ghiroli said she usually drones off when people talk about politics, but didn't while listening to Mears.
"It was pretty interesting, especially his anecdotes about his experiences within politics," she said.
