Why is the Pennsylvania Legislature so incompetent and corrupt?

I blame the media.

We're not entirely to blame, but I think we play a huge role with our scant coverage of the Harrisburg circus. Not that the rest of America's statehouses are covered any better.

This week, an army of men and women with cameras and microphones and note pads invaded California for the Michael Jackson funeral. Why? Because media mavens long ago figured out that the story people talk about is rarely the most important one -- it is the one that allows a snap judgment.

Millions watched the overblown coverage of Michael Jackson's final send-off because they could instantly think whatever they like: "A fitting tribute to a musical genius" or "This is an even more thorough sanitizing of a man's reputation than Nixon's funeral" or "I don't care what anyone says, 'Off the Wall' was a better album than 'Thriller.'" If the spectacle didn't tap some primal need, it wouldn't have saturated the airwaves.

A $1.3 billion hole in the Pennsylvania budget, and trying to figure out which of these 253 lawmakers are most to blame, is a much tougher call, much more taxing on the brain. So most media don't bother covering it, and the media that do send people don't send many.

An American Journalism Review survey last winter found that newspapers sent 32 percent fewer reporters to state capitals than they had six years before. Forty-four of the 50 statehouses have fewer reporters keeping an eye on the legislators.

Here at the Post-Gazette, we send two people to Harrisburg to cover the 253 legislators, the governor and whatever courtroom holds the criminal trial of the various corrupt lawmakers. Two reporters is more than most media outlets can say. No Pittsburgh TV station has a reporter stationed in Harrisburg. KDKA Radio and KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia combine to keep a single reporter, Tony Romeo.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, headquartered about 100 miles from the state capital, sends three reporters. The Philadelphia Daily News sends the tenacious columnist John Baer. But in the recent past, the York Daily Record eliminated its lone reporter; the Erie Times News hasn't had one for years; The Morning Call in Allentown went from two reporters to one; and the Associated Press bureau went from four to three.

You get the idea. The statehouse itself, home of America's Largest Full-Time State Legislature, hasn't shrunk any, which is why it costs so much. [Legislative appropriations, with staff, district offices, fringes, etc., amount to more than $1 million per legislator.] They get away with that because we have a half-conscious, under-informed populace and, given the straits of the newspaper industry, our ability to even maintain the coverage we have is in jeopardy.

That's just how it is. In a perfect world, we'd all read the most important stories, and media would devote their resources to the most important places. The reality is that Grant Street is 200 miles closer than the state capital, so suburban newspaper readers or TV news watchers are far more likely to know about Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl than their own state representatives. (That there is only one mayor while a handful of legislators share the same ZIP code doesn't help. No station or newspaper could adequately cover the more than 50 state legislators from southwestern Pennsylvania)

It's never been more important to pay attention, though. As Tim Potts, head of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, put it in a mass e-mail on Tuesday:

"And today, on the fourth anniversary of the Pay Raise of 2005, scores of lawmakers take a break from their failure to enact a budget to defend their failure to be simply honest. Defendant Mike Veon [the indicted, former House Democratic Whip from Beaver Falls] has called on them to attest in court that illegally using tax-paid staff, offices, equipment and money for election campaigns is so commonplace that no one should be charged with breaking the law. Or everyone should be charged, which is the remedy we prefer."

Mr. Potts concludes, "Sadly, it appears that we citizens will make progress again only when lawmakers fear us as well as hate us. A third of the legislature is new since 2005. Next year is another chance to change the other two-thirds."

Harsh? So is the idea of a 16 percent increase in the personal income tax during a global recession. So is keeping $200 million in legislative slush funds while other state programs get cut. So is keeping $750 million in a Rainy Day Fund when a fool can see it's pouring outside.

We have managed to report these moves and non-moves, time and again. As I said, it's not entirely our fault.