MSU
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.
