Start asking questions about how commission reports are compiled

ASK THIS | November 308, 2005

A dissenting member of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform suggests that reporters covering commissions take a look under the hood.

By Alex Kingsbury
akingsbury@niemanwatchdog.org

Spencer Overton (soverton@law.gwu.edu) is a professor at the George Washington University Law School who specializes  in election law. He recently served on the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform and created a Web site (http://www.carterbakerdissent.com) to register his disagreements with some of the commission's recommendations. A contrarian voice on this panel, particularly on the issue of photo identification, Overton encourages journalists assigned to write about commissions to consider the following questions:

Q. How are commission members chosen and what relevant experience do they bring to the task at hand?

Q. Who selects the witnesses to appear before the commission and contribute to its conclusions?

Q. What are the rules governing the inclusion of dissenting viewpoints?

Q. Assuming the commissioners are properly informed about the topic, how has that knowledge been acquired? Does the public have access to the briefing documents, reading lists, and bibliographies that helped educate commission members?

Q. Is the goal of the commission to achieve a given legislative objective or simply to investigate and explore a situation? How does the mission of the commission influence the work produced?

Overton says the press should be asking more pointed questions about the ingredients that go into making reports. "People rely on the press to interpret what these reports mean and how they are put together and the press could be doing a better job," he says. "The media also tend to overlook who actually does the work. President Carter, for example, is a very credible guy, but he wasn't sitting in a room somewhere analyzing information and driving the process."

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