I wasn’t necessarily planning to write today, but I want to call your attention to an odd story that broke out over the weekend, and why I initially thought it was fraudulent.
On Sunday, I saw a post on Bluesky claiming that a Texas congresswoman named Kay Granger had disappeared for six months without anyone in the media taking note:
I started tracing it back, and I saw that the story had seemingly come from WCBM, a right-wing talk station in Baltimore, which is rather far from Texas. The headline: “‘Missing’ GOP Congresswoman Not Seen For Six Months Finally Found Living at Dementia Care Home.”
The WCBM article, in turn, linked to a news outlet called The Dallas Express. I started doing some due diligence and found a 2023 article from the Texas Observer 2023 headlined “The ‘Dallas Express’: Your Go-To Source for Right-Wing, Astroturf News.” That’s where I learned that the Express may or may not be linked to Metric Media, a notorious chain of pink-slime websites — that is, websites that purport to offer local news but that are actually engaged in political propaganda. (The Observer noted that it’s not clear whether the Express is part of Metric Media or not, and that there have been threats of legal action.) I also learned that Carlos Turcios, the reporter who broke the story for the Express, is “a Young Latino Conservative Activist in the Dallas Fort Worth area.” In other words, not a journalist.
Finally, I discovered that there was a tribute to Granger held in Washington in November to mark her pending retirement from Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson was among those on hand. Granger was definitely there, as you can see from the above photo. That would certainly contradict the assertion that Granger had “disappeared” for six months. Game, set, match — right?
Wrong. As news about Granger continued to spread, I went back and read Turcios’ story in The Dallas Express more carefully. It turns out he did not assert that Granger hadn’t been seen in six months — rather, he reported that she hadn’t taken part in any House votes for six months. The “not seen for six months” line was an exaggeration added by WCBM. Everything else has subsequently checked out. Granger is, indeed, in an elder-care facility in Forth Worth, and, in a follow-up, her son told The Dallas Morning News that she has been experiencing “dementia issues.”
So the biggest remaining question is this: Why was it left to The Dallas Express to uncover Granger’s disappearance from Congress? The Texas political scene, after all, is well-covered. Granger’s district is served by two major daily newspapers, the Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Texas Tribune, one of the largest nonprofit news organizations in the country, has a presence in Washington.
I began this item with a post by journalist and historian Garrett Graff calling this an “incredible testament to the loss of local news coverage.” Not quite. I’d say the coverage was in place, but for some reason it failed. While editors are celebrating the holidays this week, I also hope they take a few moments to ask themselves a time-honored question: Why we no have?
Meanwhile, kudos to Carlos Turcios and The Dallas Express. I hope people start taking them more seriously. I know I will.
Update: Damon Kiesow trod similar ground.