Kristen Mack, who has struggled so far replacing John Williams on the local politics beat, struggled a little more on Friday, as this bit of gossip found its way into her weekly column, which took up the topic of SAFEclear and Democratic Senator John Whitmire:
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, charged that Whitmire is helping Republicans.
“This is moving toward politics and the politics of future elections as opposed to public policy,” he said.
That’s based on speculation in political circles that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is trying to block White from running for higher office and is using Whitmire to carry his water.
“That’s just silly talk,” Whitmire said.
Unsubstantiated gossip from ambiguous “political circles” is the sort of thing I expect to see on some blogs and maybe even from some radio talk show hosts, but it’s not really what I expect to see in a weekly column in a major metro daily. If this material was going to be included at all, the ambiguous “political circles” and more specific elaboration on the alleged motivation for such behavior should have been provided.
That said, Mack’s column last week was somewhat better than recent efforts, as she mainly stuck to reporting facts about who is planning to run in what municipal races. Sticking to facts and trying to avoid unsubstantiated gossip is probably a good idea for future columns.
