My Hero: Determined reporter makes pols’ secret meeting public

Hanna

In Kansas, where lawmakers are dealing with a huge budget mess, Associated Press correspondent John Hanna stumbled upon a closed-door meeting of plottinglawmakers and decided to take a closer look.
According to National Journal’s Ron Fournier, a former AP correspondent with Detroit roots, earlier this week Hanna passed a closed conference room en route to his basement office in the Kansas Statehouse. Glancing through a door window, Hanna saw Gov. Sam Brownback's budget director addressing 27 Republican lawmakers.
Hanna was immediately suspicious because the GOP caucus was not publicly scheduled, as would be the custom in Kansas, and a long-awaited debate on the House floor had just been canceled.

Why are they meeting in secret? wondered Hanna, a seasoned reporter. Hanna opened the door, walked in, and stood against a wall.

Fournier picks up the story from there: 

"This is a private meeting," one lawmaker barks. "You weren't invited."
Hanna crosses his arms. "I know that," he says, nodding at the Brownback aide, Shawn Sullivan, "but I'd like to hear what he has to say." After a few minutes of awkward silence, Budget Committee Chairman Marvin Kleeb shrugs. "It's OK," he says. "He can stay."

Brownback

Just like that, a private meeting was made public. No lawyers. No protests. No big scene. No indignant editorials or begging from the journalist community. Just one reporter reminding the government who's in charge of his beat: "I'd like to hear what he has to say."This 30-year veteran of state legislative coverage for the AP could be a model for reporters in Washington, where "background" briefings and email, "quote approval," and other erosions of journalist authority are too often met with passive-aggressive acquiescence. Hanna flipped the script.