Politico revisits the remarkable story of former Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, who went AWOL from Congress last year for months before anyone noticed. Turns out, she had entered a facility for patients with dementia back home in Fort Worth. It was a small online outlet, the Dallas Express, that finally uncovered what had happened. Which prompts Politico's Michael Schaeffer to wonder how on earth the entire DC press corps missed the story for so long. He notes that a Hollywood spin on the tale might cast the Dallas Express as the plucky underdog who scooped the elite press corps. But in reality, what unfolded speaks volumes about the modern media coverage of Congress, or lack thereof.
"The basic change: Politics- or policy-centric outlets with a national focus have established major footholds," writes Schaeffer. "But there's been a hollowing out of the hometown outlets who once sent reporters to Washington with orders to watchdog their local lawmaker, whether or not that lawmaker was a big shot." The Fort Worth newspaper, for example, doesn't have a full-time DC reporter anymore. The larger Dallas Morning News probably would have noticed Granger's absence and done a story "a few years ago," but that is no longer the case, says Todd Gillman, who ran its DC bureau as its staff was decimated.
Don't expect the dynamic to change anytime soon. "National outlets," for example, "are going to focus on Congress as a whole, meaning the power players who run it and the major issues before it, with a dash of coverage for the occasional high-profile backbencher," writes Shaeffer. The only hope for more thorough coverage might be via "philanthropy-funded outlets" that have begun springing up to back nonprofit newsrooms, he adds. (Read the full story, which has more details on those nonprofits.)
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