‘Collectively, We’re All Guilty’: Capitol Hill Reporter Admits the ‘Kay Granger Story’ Fell Through the Cracks
At least one Capitol Hill reporter admitted to dropping the ball when it came to alerting constituents that Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) has been missing in action from the House floor because she’s been dealing with “dementia issues” at an assisted living facility for the past six months.
Hans Nichols, political reporter with Axios, offered up a mea culpa on CNN’s Inside Politics on Monday.
“We’re still, as reporters, have limited resources and limited time to report all these stories out. That said, we should have gotten the Kay Granger story. I mean, like, I’ll own part of that, as someone that spends some time on the Hill. You know, collectively we’re all guilty. Like, you know, individually, it’s hard to parse out guilt,” Nichols said.
“Should there be stronger local news in Texas? Yes. Right. Would they have sniffed it out? But there’s no mechanism in our Constitution to really sort of catch this or prevent it from happening. It’s on the press corps and we just have to figure out how to figure it out. And it takes real reporting, right? This is real resources, you have to get the story. Not impossible to do. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect, but none of us had the time or the resources to do it. And, you know, we owe a portion of the blame,” he continued.
In fact, a The Dallas Express’s Carlos Turcios did “sniff out” the story on Dec. 20 with the headline, “Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?”
Granger released a statement that CNN’s Phil Mattingly read on air:
“I want to read some of the congresswoman’s statement where she says, in part, ‘I’ve been navigating some unforeseen health challenges over the past year. However, since early September, my health challenges have progressed, making frequent travel to Washington both difficult and unpredictable. During this time, my staff has remained steadfast, continuing to deliver exceptional constituent services,'” said Mattingly.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
