This is the maddening question that should hang over all the stories depicting Jerry Brown as some sort of genius governor. David Siders of the Sacramento Bee today became only the latest journalist to treat political process achievements as tantamount to real progress and successful stewardship:

“Praise for California and its governor, Jerry Brown, has drifted in for months now from the East Coast, ever since Brown and state lawmakers enacted a balanced budget this summer.

“The accomplishment followed years of deficits and budget standoffs at the Capitol. Coupled with the Legislature’s relatively frictionless action on issues ranging from education funding to gun control and immigration, the statehouse found itself comparing favorably to dysfunction in Washington, D.C. …

“Brown, the lunchtime speaker at the event, argued one reason for this success is that, through a series of ballot measures, Californians “broke a decade of dysfunction and laid the foundation for a government that actually works.”

Evan Halper of the L.A. Times also today accepts the narrative that political process achievements are tantamount to real progress:

“'Three years ago California was called a failed state,' [Gov. Brown] said. 'They were virtually chortling in the conservative venues.'

“Brown credited California’s turnaround to a series of ballot measures. The measures allowed a state budget to get passed with a simple majority of lawmakers, put an independent commission in charge of voting boundaries, and raised taxes by billions of dollars.

“'The people themselves through the initiative actually broke a decade of dysfunction and laid the foundation for a government that works,' he said.”

The rest of the story that Siders, Halper skip

How is it good journalism to accept uncritically the idea that California is doing better because its political process is less contentious?

How is it good journalism to focus on Brown's self-serving claims instead of the fact that California has the highest effective poverty rate in the nation? That California has the second-highest rate of people unable to find full-time work? Don't mass poverty and mass unemployment count as news?

I honestly don't know how Siders and Halper can't understand the flimsiness of equating process success with real-life progress. Nor do I understand why mass economic misery is a non-story. But here's what one veteran Sacramento watcher told me the last time I expressed frustration with the reporters covering the state:

By Chris Reed

Early last week, an analysis I wrote for CalWatchdog questioned the central narrative of Proposition 30: that if it failed, there would be billions of dollars in automatic “trigger” cuts in public education.

“At some point — my guess is 9:30 p.m. next Tuesday — California’s political class is finally going to start thinking about how it will deal with this hole in the budget and stop lecturing voters about what jerks they are for not raising their own taxes to continue funding a broken status quo.

“Specifically, they will think about the implications of how Legislature and the governor forced school districts to deal with the $5 billion once it went missing: by cutting the school year by 8 percent, from 175 days to 161 days.

“Why does that save so many billions? Because it represents an 8 percent cut to by far the biggest item in the state budget: teacher pay. (Think about it: Prop. 98 reserves about 43 percent of revenue for schools; 90 percent or more of school district operating funds goes to compensation, primarily teacher pay.)

“At this point, the Prop. 30 strategy no longer holds schoolchildren hostage. It holds teachers hostage.

“Does anyone really think the California Teachers Association and its less brash little bro, the California Federation of Teachers, are going to stand for an 8 percent pay cut? When the most powerful political force in the state, by far, faces such a threat, guess what? It will come like a crazed wolverine after every last dollar of revenue available in Sacramento.”

To my pleasant surprise, after the analysis appeared, the Sacramento Bee began writing about this angle, starting with Dan Walters. Now the Bee has splashed on its Sunday front page a 1,300-word analysis of what happens if Prop. 30 fails.

But here’s what’s incredible. Bee reporter Kevin Yamamura’s story doesn’t mention the California Teachers Association or the California Federation of Teachers!

This is like writing a comprehensive story about the Lakers that doesn’t mention Kobe Bryant or coach Mike Brown. Are you kidding me?

On the other hand, what’s good enough for America’s most influential newspaper is good enough for the Bee.