"Most importantly, justices should insist upon transparency, not secrecy."

Cheers for that.

Jeers for this

It was a goofy game when Senator Bruce Patterson (RCanton) introduced Senate Bill 1285, calling for newspaper readers to pay a deposit on each newspaper they buy just as we pay now for some bottles and cans.

It would require a deposit equal to half the price of the newspaper and would require each paper to maintain a redemption site where readers could turn in their newspaper and collect the refund of their deposit.

An understandably alarmed Michigan Press Association dubbed it the "Newspaper Death Act," coming during troubled times for many of its members.

A steamed John Tarrant of the Antrim Review in Bellaire placed a call to Patterson and started writing that "these guys have too much time on their hands if they have time to think up and introduce crazy laws like this one." He calls it a good argument for a part-time Legislature.

After the senator, who once had visions of running for attorney general, returned the call, the final version of Tarrant's column last week said:

"It turns out that this was a 'tongue-in-cheek' piece of legislation Patterson introduced with no intention of having it go anywhere and for the sole purpose of getting some calls from newspaper types like me so he can explain something to us."

The delighted senator already had heard from some Metro Detroit area papers. Tarrant said: "His message to Michigan newspapers is that we need to do a better job of letting our readers know how bad things are in Lansing. The truth of the situation, he says, is that the state's legitimate news sources, its newspapers, are being drowned out by the extremists on blogs and Web sites and the fact that the State of Michigan is totally lacking in leadership is not getting out.

"Frankly, I don't know where Patterson is coming from with this bizarre approach to the state's newspapers. Anybody living in Michigan these days is certainly well aware of the sorry state of our state, but if Patterson truly believes newspapers haven't gotten that word out, there are easier ways to let us know than introducing bogus legislation designed solely to get our attention."

Patterson's weird caper was an abuse of legislative privilege, and a waste of legislative staff and resources. If his goal was to get newspapers to report on what is wrong with Lansing, he has provided a perfect example.

George Weeks retired in 2006 after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.