MEDIA AT FAULT STORY BEHIND STATE'S MESS IS RARELY EXPLAINED.

Byline: JILL STEWART  Capitol Punishment

IF the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delays the recall, pity the voters who will be subjected to months of Gray Davis faking he likes church (as when he loudly pronounced ``Psalms'' as ``Palm'' while praying with Bill Clinton) and faking he's a good man.

But pity voters even more for having to rely on the California media, a bunch whose political coverage is, with some exceptions, best categorized as journalistic malpractice.

A wise man said democracy is guaranteed only by a vigilant press. The collapse of leadership in the statehouse, which led to the greatest state budget deficit in U.S. history and to the recall against Davis, is the direct result of an extended lack of journalistic vigilance.

Had the governor believed the public was alert and questioning the overspending he willingly approved beginning years ago, the cowardly Davis might have feared the people more than the lobbyists. He might have vetoed mounting overspending.

Instead, the media handled the emerging crisis as a boring budget story, inadvertently protecting Davis and kissing off the public's need to know.

I watched in awe as the Legislature, approaching a Sept. 12 legal deadline, passed last-minute laws never debated in public and changed laws from one meaning to an entirely new meaning after inept discussion. Of some 400 mostly needless bills approved, nearly all were by Democrats. That's because the powerful Dems prevented Republican bills from even leaving committee.

Editors have sent up a howl for copy on what motivates the 9th Circuit, the single most overturned federal appeals court. But when it comes to the broken cogs in Sacramento that fuel the recall, the media rarely explain the story behind the story.

Maybe the public ought to do something about this. Watch for coverage of awful laws just approved. Does the journalist tell you who ghost-wrote it (like a big union), how the law was dramatically altered, and who gives money to legislators who pushed it? If not, it's not even Journalism 201.

Here's my latest watch list of turkeys sitting on Davis' desk:

--AB 1245, by John Laird, D-Santa Cruz. Prevents draft ballot measures from first going to the attorney general, who currently cleans up illegal language before public distribution. Instead, measures will go on a Web site so we see every screw-up. The intent is to create chaos around measures so they'll fail at the polls. Laird should be flogged in public for this sneak attack on our initiative process. Too bad we don't do that anymore.

--AB 1309, by Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. After a school district tears down houses to build a school, this allows a district to go tear down somebody else's house, somewhere else, to put up housing for those originally displaced. The intent is to make white suburbanites, whom Goldberg detests, suffer instead of brown urbanites. Watch for lawsuits by broadsided homeowners.

--AB 587, by Mark Ridley-Thomas. D-Los Angeles. A box asking your skin color will now go on voter registration forms. It's voluntary - but expect a move next to make it required. Davis signed this creepy law Wednesday.

--AB 1742. If your tax man has more than 100 clients, he now must send your return in via Internet. Your privacy is at risk.

--SB 796, by Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove. Allows workers to seek fines of $200 each from firms who commit tiny labor violations. California's labor code is thicker than a Manhattan phone book. One code specifies a font size in which employee notices must be posted. So 50 employees can now get $10,000 over improper fonts. More ice for our business climate. Dunn's special-interest servicing of lawyers and unions is shameless.

--SB 892, by Kevin Murray, D-Culver City. Withholds funds from schools with dirty bathrooms. More anti-reform. Instead of giving principals the power to decide how to use money - such as on cleaning bathrooms - Sacramento has emasculated principals. Now, dopes like the oafish Murray ensure that struggling schools are further punished. Brilliant.

--AB 231, by Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. ``Reforms'' the food stamp program, which required that nobody own a fancy car if taxpayers were buying their food. Up to now, car value was capped at $4,650. But now? Now, you can own a Rolls, and your household can own as many luxury cars as it wishes. Also, no more face-to-face interviews to qualify. Just give a buzz. Who's this for - busy, jobless billionaires? If it's really so poor workers can keep reliable cars, why wasn't a new cap set of $15,000?

I could list another 100 idiotic bills. Davis, openly pandering to groups for whom they were written, is expected to sign many of them.

So fire your tax man, call up for food stamps, suspiciously eye any new school, and have a lawyer design your employee bulletin board.

And be secure in knowing the California political media are on the job.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) If he signs any of the bogus bills that will soon cross his desk, no amount of help from former President Bill Clinton will help Gov. Gray Davis convince voters he's a good man.

Ric Francis / Associated Press