Covering Federal Agencies   

When the Project on the State of the American Newspaper was conceived, one goal was to measure how coverage of federal agencies by newspapers and wire services changed over time.

The premise was that covering Washington's "buildings," its federal agencies and departments, has value. Without vigilant beat reporters, the press corps may miss important stories that government officials are not eager to promote but that affect citizens' safety, health and financial security. Ferreting out these stories requires patient cultivation of sources and immersion in arcane issues and language.

"We have these very large agencies that are charged with keeping the public safe, and you realize that there really aren't that many watchdogs keeping an eye on the agencies," says Stephen Koff, Washington bureau chief of Cleveland's Plain Dealer. Koff does not have a full-time person in his four-reporter bureau assigned to any one agency. "Some of these agencies can be very, very technically oriented and quite difficult to parachute in and out of."

Philip Brasher, a Washington reporter for the Des Moines Register, covers food and agriculture policy and spends the bulk of his time at the Department of Agriculture. "There's no way, if you're not covering a beat full time, that you can keep up with what's going on and maintain sources," he says. "A lot of reporting is just keeping up with sources and decisions and policies that are under development at the departments."

AJR selected 19 agencies and departments with influence over citizens' daily lives and tracked which ones received the attention of full-time beat reporters in 1999, 2001, 2002 and, finally, in fall 2003. In our study, "regularly" means that at least two-thirds of a reporter's time goes to covering the department and closely related issues.

Many cases involved judgment calls. Increasingly, Washington bureaus define beat coverage in terms of topics rather than buildings--"the economy" rather than the Treasury Department, "the environment" rather than the Environmental Protection Agency, "telecommunications" rather than the Federal Communications Commission.

Some bureau chiefs argue our survey shortchanges quality reporting on broader thematic beats and results in somewhat arbitrary decisions about how to classify reporters' time.

John Walcott, Knight Ridder's Washington bureau chief, objects to the methodology's implication that "if you don't have someone there full time, you're not paying attention. All of our reporters have a number of things to watch, and it's their job to know when something important is happening.... You've got to ask, 'What are we really measuring here? Is this a tool we can use to measure the quality of reporting?' And my answer is no. It's clearly a meaningless tool." Walcott suggests an alternative methodology: examining stories each bureau has produced on relevant issues.

In keeping with the original goals of the project, AJR tried to determine whether reporters on broader beats spent the bulk of their time covering an agency and closely related issues. In a few cases, we gave credit for covering an agency if the combined efforts of several people equaled or exceeded full-time coverage.

As in past years, we found a slim presence at several agencies. No full-time reporters covered the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Social Security Administration.

But coverage of the Defense and Justice departments has increased since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Before 9/11, we had one intelligence-community reporter; now we have two," says Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. "Before 9/11, we had one Pentagon reporter; now we have two." McManus also is gradually shifting his Federal Aviation Administration reporter to a full-time Department of Homeland Security beat.

Cox Newspapers changed its beat structure after 9/11 to focus more on agencies with national-security implications--the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Rebecca Carr, who previously covered philanthropy, now covers the Justice Department. "It's fair to say we've returned to a more traditional beat structure in general," says Bureau Chief Andrew Alexander.

We made three alterations to our chart for the fall 2003 survey. First, we combined the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior to include beat reporters who are dividing their time equally between closely related issues in these two agencies. The new category reflects beat reporters who cover both these agencies or concentrate on one. The Denver Post, for example, closely follows the Interior Department and Secretary Gail Norton, the former Colorado attorney general, as well as related public-land issues.

Second, we created a combined Federal Aviation Administration/Transportation Security Administration category because oversight for airline security now falls under TSA within the newly created Department of Homeland Security. Some transportation reporters are responsible for TSA and FAA; other news organizations include TSA in homeland-security beats.

Third, we created a category for the new Department of Homeland Security.

We surveyed newspapers, major Washington bureaus and general news wire services: the Associated Press, Reuters and United Press International. We did not include specialty wires, such as Bloomberg and Dow Jones, which intensely cover many federal agencies but do so for a niche audience. We also excluded foreign newspapers, such as the Financial Times, despite their significant Washington presence.

Bureaus that have added coverage since our last survey in August 2002 are in italics. In a few cases, we adjusted the 2002 counts to reflect more accurate information.

Department of Homeland Security
Budget: $30 billion
Employees: about 180,000
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 12
Associated Press
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Copley
Cox
Newsday
New York Times
United Press International
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times

Federal Communications Commission
Budget: $271 million
Employees: about 1,900
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 7
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 7
Associated Press
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Reuters
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Department of Defense
Budget: $382.7 billion (does not include supplemental budget for Iraq and Afghanistan)
Employees: 1.42 million active duty; 1.22 million reserves and National Guard; about 700,000 civilians
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 21
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 23
Associated Press
Baltimore Sun
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Copley
Cox
Dallas Morning News
Hearst
Houston Chronicle
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
Newsday
New York Post
New York Times
Reuters
Scripps Howard
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
United Press International
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times

Department of Veterans Affairs
Budget: $58.9 billion
Employees: about 224,720
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: None
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: None

Department of Agriculture
Budget: $74.3 billion
Employees: 110,206
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 4
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 5
Associated Press
Chicago Tribune
Des Moines Register
New York Times
Reuters

Social Security Administration
Budget: $8.1 billion
Employees: about 65,000
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: None
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: None

Internal Revenue Service
Budget: $9.8 billion
Employees: about 100,000
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 3
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 3
Associated Press
New York Times
Wall Street Journal

Treasury Department
Budget: $10.92 billion
Employees: 116,915
Federal Reserve
Budget: $2.07 billion
Employees: 22,297
Federal Trade Commission
Budget: $177 million
Employees: 1,074
Securities and Exchange Commission
Budget: $716 million
Employees: about 3,500
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 13
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 12
Associated Press
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
Newsday
New York Times
Reuters
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times
Bureaus that have dropped coverage since 2002: 1
Dallas Morning News

Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Budget: $585 million
Employees: 2,906
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: None
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: None

Supreme Court
Budget: $47 million
Employees: 434
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 13
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 14
Associated Press
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Hearst
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Reuters
United Press International
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times

State Department
Budget: $7.3 billion
Employees: about 15,500
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 15
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 15
Associated Press
Baltimore Sun
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
Newsday
New York Times
Reuters
United Press International
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times

Justice Department
Budget: $24 billion
Employees: 99,155
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 15
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 15
Associated Press
Baltimore Sun
Chicago Tribune
Cox
Dallas Morning News
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
Newsday
New York Times
Reuters
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Washington Times
Bureaus that have dropped coverage since 2002: 1
New York Post

Department of Labor
Budget: $11.8 billion
Employees: 16,141
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 2
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 2
Associated Press
Reuters

Food and Drug Administration
Budget: $1.4 billion
Employees: about 10,500
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: 6
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 7
Associated Press
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Reuters
St. Petersburg Times
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post

Environmental Protection agency
Budget: $8.1 billion
Employees: about 18,000
Department of the Interior
Budget: $13.2 billion
Employees: 70,037
Bureaus that regularly covered in 2002: This category was compiled differently in past years, so the results are not directly comparable. AJR counted 2 bureaus covering EPA full time in 2002, and none covering Interior full time.
Bureaus that regularly cover as of fall 2003: 7
Associated Press
Denver Post
Knight Ridder
Los Angeles Times
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
USA Today
Washington Post