Congress and Journalism

Development

During the first decades of its existence (1790–1850) congressmen generally had the upper hand in dealing with the press. They tightly controlled access to congressional proceedings, as most committee meetings were off-limits to members of the press. The Senate did not even open its floor proceedings until 1795, and continued to keep nomination and treaty debates secret until the twentieth century.

The line between reporter and propagandist was not always clear, as members generally had close relationships with the journalists who covered them, sometimes hiring them in the periods between congressional sessions as clerks and secretaries and giving them other patronage duties. Government printing contracts were also doled out to supportive papers. A prime example of this was the National Intelligencer, which was the dominant newspaper of the capitol in this period. For years, its two publishers, William Seaton and Joseph Gales, were the sole reporters for the House and Senate, respectively, and had close ties to Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party then in control of Congress. They were also the official printers of Congress from 1819 to 1829, and began compiling official reports of the activities of Congress, the precursor to the Congressional Record.

Because the locus of national power in the nineteenth century was centered firmly in Congress rather than the presidency, the congressional beat grew in importance and stature. Given the growth of the partisan press into the mid-nineteenth century, the trend of favorable coverage for many members continued, since often their partisan patronage or political connections back home included that of allied newspaper owners and editors—with the exception of those aligned with the opposition party.

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