BOSTON – The new session of the Massachusetts State Legislature kicked off last week with speeches from the Senate President and House Speaker scolding the local news media for allegedly failing to accurately report on what they claim was a productive 2023-2024 season.
In particular, the two branches were criticized for failing to reach agreement on important, long-pending bills before the end of formal sessions in July, but most of those items on their to-do list were completed by year’s end.
Veteran political reporter Gin Dumcius of CommonWealth Beacon previewed the upcoming legislative session and other key 2025 topics in Massachusetts politics on the Sunday edition of “Keller At Large.”
“Self-inflicted” negative news coverage
Gumcius called much of the negative coverage of the legislature “self-inflicted.”
“Certainly, they’ve kept working, but a lot of the negative news coverage has been self-inflicted on their part,” Gin said. “They’ve blown past deadlines. You know, we’ve had the headlines from the Globe about a top lawmaker having a close relationship, with a lobbyist. So you have all that in the mix. The Senate president was [lamenting] the fragmentation of the media. That’s true, but that also means that lawmakers have the biggest avenue right now to directly reach constituents. They can bypass the media if they want.”