How Limited Access to State Officials Hurts Reporting in Missouri

By: Deron Lee | CJR

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KS — To hear Phill Brooks tell it, statehouse reporters in Missouri used to have serious access.

Brooks, a correspondent for KMOX radio in St. Louis and a journalism professor at the University of Missouri, has covered politics in the state for four decades. At the beginning of his career, he says, he would go see Jerry Bryan, the press secretary to Gov. Warren Hearnes, when he had a policy question.